The Letters
by Ariannette
Summary: In Season 2, Episode: Humpty Dumpty, House searches Cuddy's home for an environmental cause to Alfredo's symptoms (her Handyman). As he's searching her bedroom, he comes across a box of letters from when they were at Michigan. House believes the letters will be something fun hold over Cuddy, but instead he soon comes to realize that he's just opened Pandora's Box.
1. Rich Blue Eyes

**Ari's Note: **Ok...so there's a million things I could be doing at this very moment. For instance, finishing up Part 29 to YOLT, or the next part of Don't Dream Its Over. But instead my overactive imagination decided to concoct another plot to a Huddy story- in the middle of writing an essay for my History class which is due this saturday at midnight. So here's how it happened: As I was reading about Petrarch (a dude from the Renaissance) and all the letters he wrote about a woman he was in love with- I had a sudden thought...What if Cuddy came across letters from when House was in Michigan, that he'd written about her? I immediately ex-d that idea- House would never write love letters (at least not the House that I think I know). So then I thought about, what if House found those letters? So this is my idea of House finding a box of letters between Cuddy and her sister Julia, about the first time she set eyes on House. This is set in season two, Episode Humpty Dumpty, when House goes as searches her home for toxins.

I am so sorry about the long explanation! But I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think, and if i should continue...

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><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part I

_Rich Blue Eyes_

In the morning while Cuddy's young handyman- Alfredo had been working on her roof, he'd fallen off and broken his leg. He'd been rushed to the hospital, and everything had seemed like it was ok, only his hand had began to clot, and he'd had breathing problems. House thought it was just from falling down off her roof, but he hadn't dismissed the opportunity to search Cuddy's home. Who would?

Instead he'd volunteered right away to go search her home with his two lackeys. His head had gone crazy wondering what sex toys and leather ropes he'd find in her closet. He was sure she had a leather corset with a dog collar ready for him.

As he and his two lackeys walked up to Cuddy's front door, House stopped and smiled at them.

"Twenty bucks says I can get through this door in twenty seconds."

Chase scoffed, "You're on."

Foreman looked at House with a curious smile, "Count me in."

Chase took out his watch to time him while House bent down, moved a plant, and found a key underneath it. He grinned as Chase and Foreman got out their wallets begrudgingly and each handed him the cash.

House opened the door and walked in with his lackeys trailing behind him afterwards.

"How did you even know that was there?" Chase asked incredulously.

Foreman scoffed, "He's obviously been here before."

House took that opportunity to turn and smile at them once more while wiggling his eyebrows, "I got the bedroom."

xxxoxxxo

"So why haven't you fired House?" Cameron asked searching through cabinets, in Alfredo's home. They'd gone to search his home for toxins, in vain hope that the cause of his declining health was of his own doing.

Cuddy looked up from the fridge, startled by her question.

Cameron explained, "I mean, it's just, you guys are always screaming at each other and I figure you hate him-"

Cuddy smiled, "I don't hate him."

"Why not?"

Cuddy just looked at her, and Cameron realized she needed further explaining.

"He's a great doctor, but any other hospital administrator would have fired him years ago."

"Four of them did. The question is why did I hire him?"

Cameron took a deep breath, obviously she wasn't getting anywhere with the angle she was using and decided to try something else, "You both went to Michigan. Did you know him while you were there?"

"Uh, I was still an undergrad, but yeah, I knew him. He was already a legend." She'd said it with a bit of an underlying proudness.

Cameron let a little smirk grow on her lips, and looked at her, "So you just knew him as a legend?"

"My God, you're subtle. Anything else on your mind?"

Cameron looked away.

Something had totally happened at Michigan.

xxxoxxxo

There weren't really any tell-tale signs of fungus or any other environmental causes for Alfredo to have his medical issues. Not that House was actually looking for them, yes sure he sorta was, but he was much more interested in going through Cuddy's things.

It was like having the keys to the candy store. House eagerly sucked on his red lollipop while he looked through her closet with a tiny smirk on his face. His excuse was that he was looking for vents to see if there was any fungus. But truly he was looking at her shoes and articles of clothing she had hanging.

Did she separate everything by color? Or sleeve length? Was she as anal in her closet as she was in her office? And where were those dominatrix corsets he was so sure she had?

The mind boggling questions were endless for him.

He hadn't corrected Foreman when he joked about being in her bedroom before. The truth was that he had been, just not in that house but in her dorm at Michigan.

While stuck in his thoughts and sucking on his lollipop, House accidentally knocked down some boxes that were on top of a shelf above her clothes, causing one of the boxes to fall down and split open, pouring dozens of papers on the floor.

He grimaced as he bent down to pick them up, only to be struck when he saw his name on a lined piece of paper that looked to be a letter. He frowned and picked it up for a moment, realizing that they were all letters addressed to her from her sister Julia. He picked up one that had the letter one on it- it had two pieces of letters stapled together, the one from Julia on top, and Cuddy's underneath.

_Lisa!_

_This letter you sent me is insane. I didn't show it to mom obviously, because she'd be on the first flight out to Michigan to place you in a mental institution. But seriously? Love at first sight? Where's my sister and what have you done to her? Who's this blue-eyed god you speak of anyway? I wish you'd call instead of insisting on writing these stupid things._

_Your sort of jealous- sort of concerned sis,_

_Julia_

House frowned, a little perplexed by Julia's short letter, and licked his lips while turning the page over as it had an earlier date, to read what she had been talking about.

_Julia,_

_I think I came alive today for the first time, while I was buying my books. There's no other way to explain the sudden jolt that happened inside me at the sight of him. It's funny how they say you instantly fall in love. Can you instantly fall in love? Is there such a thing as that? Has it ever happened to you? and to think I used to be a huge critic of such beliefs! I feel like Romeo talking about the first time he set eyes on Juliet. Oh this guy is totally my Juliet! I mean, really? How can you instantly fall in love without having gotten to know a person first and without having spent time with them? Without knowing their name? without having a conversation? How can you justify feeling as if they've become your world? Or is it just a form of insanity? Because how do you know if they feel it back? Am I even making any sense? I doubt it...Julia I fell in love. And I don't even know his name. How pathetic am I? Don't answer that question._

_There I was waiting in a line with two giggling girls in front of me who kept flirting with the guy behind the counter, taking up my time- until they finally went away. I realized then why it was they were taking their sweet time. Here was this godly looking man- not boy- man, who had the bluest eyes, sexiest of smiles- from what I saw when he rolled his eyes at the girls that had walked away, and his intellectuality. Ive never met anyone like him before. _

_He took my class schedule and smirked. Saying that I had a chip on my shoulder and had something to prove- since I was taking a tough Professor's class and that I liked to party because none of my classes where before noon. And all of that he concluded in five seconds flat. _

_In the end when he came back with my books and made eye contact with me for that one moment, I felt like I might die. Like I couldn't breath, like I might confess my love for him right then and there._

_I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't eat, or sleep without thinking of those blue eyes. I know I have blue eyes too, but they're so bland in comparison to his. His are a rich shade of blue I'd never come across before. Oh my god, as I'm writing this, he's walking into the bookstore. _

_Don't tell mom, you know she'll freak. _

_your irrationally in love sister, _

_Lisa_

House cocked his head to the side, dropping the letter as his eyes popped wide open.

It certainly wasn't a leather corset, but it was interesting all the same.

TBC...


	2. Dimples

**Ari's Note: **I'm really sorry this part is so short, it's really unlike me- I know. But I wanted to establish the flow of this story, as it might get confusing. Going forward one chapter will be in the present, and the other in the past establishing a view of the letter in question & both House's and Cuddy's accounts of their time while at Michigan. It shouldn't be too confusing, but I have a tendency to over explain things and complicate them more than they really are. Sorry..but Enjoy! & Please give me your thoughts! :)

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><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part II

_Dimples_

It had been a few weeks since House had searched Cuddy's home and he'd found the jaw-dropping correspondence between her and Julia. He'd taken them of course, like any sane normal person would.

A few days before he'd gone to Cuddy's home, he'd been obsessing over the fact that Stacy was back in Princeton. But as soon as he'd found those letters, thoughts of her had vanished away like a dream he couldn't quite recall anymore.

Instead, he'd began his new obsession. Reading the letters between the Cuddy sisters and what Cuddy had to say about him.

Obviously, House was competent enough to know that he couldn't bring even an ounce of a clue to the fact he'd found the letters to Cuddy…for a while at least.

The weeks following his discovery had been torturous, horrible, and he looked at her completely different after that first letter. Ok, well perhaps not _completely_ different, after all he'd known that she had some sort of crush on him while at Michigan. He just hadn't been aware of the extremity of it.

And, Love? She'd really thought that the first time she'd set eyes on him, it had been love? Even at that moment as he walked down the lobby to the clinic, the thought made him scoff and he bit back a threatening smile.

As he got to the glass doors of the clinic, House smirked when he saw Lisa Cuddy over by the nurses station, looking through patients' files with frown. She was completely immersed in what she was doing, and she did it while sporting a low cut top, and a black tight skirt that accentuated curves he remembered only too well.

He limped his way over to the opposite side of where she was standing and propped his elbows up on the nurses station. House batted his eyelashes at Cuddy, as he rested his head on the palm of his hand.

She looked up from the chart and at him strangely, while flipping a page, "What's up with you?"

He licked his lollipop, "Would you say my eyes are a bland shade of blue today? Or a much brighter hue? Brenda here thinks they're bland."

Nurse Brenda turned over to him, with a frown, "They're blue? I've always thought they were red."

Cuddy scoffed, rolling her eyes while walking away, "Why don't you go ask Cameron? I'm sure she'd have an interesting take on that question."

She walked away and into an exam room, while House turned around smirking to himself- licking his cherry flavored lollipop.

xxxoxxxo

September 5th, 1987

_Lisa, _

_You're crashing a class just to see this guy? Did you fall down hard on your way to Michigan? And his name is Gregory House? That sounds like a grandpa's name. How old is this guy anyway? You said he was a 'man', how manly is he? And he sounds like more of a jerk than anything else. Can you remind me why I agreed to letter writing? I'm seriously starting to regret this._

_You need to get laid- and no, I don't mean by this Gregory House person. _

_you're concerned sister,_

_Julia_

_September 1, 1987_

_Julia, _

_Oh Julia, his name is Greg…Gregory House. Have you ever heard a more beautiful name in your entire life? My skin prickles at the thought of him. You know those freshman fifteen pounds mom was worried I'd gain? I've lost them instead. He's the only thing I can stand to think of these days- not food. _

_I've had to find reasons to go back to the bookstore. But don't worry- I don't think he's caught on. He doesn't really seem to pay attention to anyone around him. He seems bored by everyone and everything. He needs someone to hold his interest, not these stupid bimbos that try and throw themselves at him. Sigh…_

_Anyway, I've found out he's a LEGEND from Hopkins medical school. Apparently he got into some sort of trouble his last year of medical school there, so he came here. Did I tell you he rides a bike? Sorry my letters are so frazzled, its just that my head is riddled with thoughts of him. Oh god Julia, you should see the way he smiles! It makes me shiver! He has these two very cute dimples that form when he smiles widely, they make my stomach rumble with butterflies…_

_By the way I've been auditing an endocrinology class…he's in it. _

_you're insanely in love sister, _

_Lisa_

House who had been in the middle of waiting for his patient's lab results, sat at his desk reading the Cuddy Letters- as he'd started referring to them. The strange thing he couldn't kick was how different Cuddy sounded. The Lisa Cuddy he could recall from Michigan, while young was still a rock and had never displayed such girlish tendencies. He'd never pegged her for a stalker, and had she really been to the bookstore that many times? It was hard to remember.

He realized that in hindsight he had felt like he'd been followed- though he'd attributed it to something else entirely.

As he put the letters in his desks first drawer and picked up his red bouncy ball, he heard his glass door open, and in walked Cuddy.

He couldn't help at smile, and she froze in mid strut giving him a frown, "Why are you smiling?"

"Would you say I have cute dimples?"

Cuddy opened her mouth for a second, then shut it and looked at him for a moment, before she handed him at stack of papers, "You need to re-do the reviews on your fellows. Drawing sad faces on all of them doesn't really mean anything to me or HR."

"So is that a yes to my dimples then?" He asked hopeful.

Cuddy put down the papers on his desk, shook her head with a frown and turned around to walk out, completely ignoring his question.

When she was gone, House smiled to himself and bit his bottom lip- her silence had answered his question.

Cuddy still loved his dimples.


	3. Raybans

**Ari**'**s Note: **Please excuse my horribly spelled spanish up ahead. The way that its mangled you'd never be able to tell that it was once my first language lol. Also, I promise it will all make sense very soon….

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><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part 3

_Raybans_

_Julia, _

_Why are we writing these letters? It was your idea dummy. Besides, I think its a great one too. Just imagine, when we get old and have kids we_'_ll be able to look back at these and smile, remembering our youth._…_just don_'_t show mom- you know how she is. _

_Anyway I decided to audit the endocrinology class not just because of Gregory House, but because I_'_m actually thinking of pursuing it as my specialty after medical school. And what better start that to take it with a renown endocrinologist? And ok, it certainly didn_'_t hurt that Greg is in it._

_Don_'_t judge me please? Besides something happened last week that sort of changed my view on him just slightly. Ok now when I mean don_'_t tell mom you have to swear not to tell her, because she_'_ll freak_…_._

_Michigan 1987_

What was another class in an already loaded schedule to Lisa Cuddy? Nothing. Not a big deal at all.

If anything, auditing the class would prepare her for when she actually took it. That's what she kept repeating to herself as her feet led her to the already packed room. It wasn't the fact that the guy she was drooling over was also taking it- no, not that at all.

As she walked in to the lecture hall fifteen minutes late, the only seat that was conveniently left open was the one next to a brooding tall godly looking guy-

Gregory House.

She bit her lip and nervously placed a strand of hair behind her ear as she went to sit down, placing her Williams Textbook of Endocrinology on the desk chair in front of her. Lisa felt him turn to look at her as she sat down next to him for a moment, before averting his eyes shielded by black RayBan wayfarers, back up to where the professor was speaking.

When she heard Greg clear his throat next to her, she turned her head and realized he was smiling cockily at her. He'd placed a pencil in between his lips and nodded towards her textbook, "You got the wrong one."

Lisa swallowed and mentally yelled at herself for trembling so violently as he spoke to her- she hoped he wouldn't catch on to how nervous she was. How was it possible that this guy she'd only spoken to once before, had such a horrible affect on her?

"The syllabus said Williams-" she tried arguing, before he sat back against his desk chair and pulled out a raggedy old copy.

"Davis uses the first one version."

She frowned, looking back up at the front and then back at Greg a little disappointed, "But- why?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Don't know. Just does."

She raised her brows in acknowledgement, then turned back up to where the professor was, not knowing what else to say to him and also hoping he'd keep talking to her. Though- he didn't.

The rest of the class Lisa listened intently and half-way through forgot about the tall blue-eyed hot guy that sent shivers up her spine, as she'd began to furiously take notes. Davis spoke really fast, and didn't stop in between breaths to go over anything, making it difficult to write down everything he said about _endocrine cells scattered throughout pancreas tissue._

It was when she was in the middle of her complete attentive note-taking that she heard a scoff next to her. She bit her bottom lip nervously, and looked over to steal a glance at Greg who had his head resting in one hand and was smiling widely at her- with nothing except a closed textbook in front of him.

The way he smiled created two long-deep dimples on each of his cheeks. His languid smirk made this feeling of pleasure explode in her chest and spread throughout her body without notice. Lisa swallowed and frowned a little, "What's so funny?"

He shook his head, but it was hard to decipher what he was laughing about with those dark-tinted sunglasses on his face.

Greg merely shrugged his shoulders- taking his unused pencil in-between his lips down as he spoke, "You misspelled endocrinology."

Lisa looked down at her notes and realized he was right, she'd written '_endocronology_' instead of endocrinology. Her ears got red from embarrassment, because she very well knew how to spell it, she'd just been going so fast she hadn't realized she'd made the mistake and- it was childish of him to point it out. Why was he even paying attention to her take notes anyway?

He was paying attention to her.

The fact that he was actually paying attention to her, sent her body back into unintended convulsions.

Before Lisa could give more thoughts to him acknowledging her, the professor's bell at the front of the class went off, announcing that the class was over. And before she could get up, Gregory House was on his feet and out the door with nod of his head and three stomach fluttering words-

"Bye Lisa Cuddy."

Just as she was about to nearly faint from the fact that he knew her name, she looked down at her notebook and realized that she'd written her name on the top righthand corner.

xxxoxxxo

_Following Week_

It was hard to be on time for her endocrinology class because it started at the same time that her contemporary social problems sociology class ended, and the professor would mark off anybody that left early- not to mention that class was all the way across the campus.

The following week when Lisa rushed into the class hall, there were a few seats open in the very front- her favorite place to sit, and she would have gone down there normally but bit her lip and decided to sit next to Greg instead.

He wasn't wearing his sunglasses this time, and looked really intrigued in what Professor Davis was talking about- yet again there was nothing in front of him other than an unopened textbook.

When Lisa sat down, she noticed him breath in deeply and scoff- with the shake of his head, at one point when the professor said something.

She turned with mild curiosity, "What?"

He slowly turned his face towards her, but kept his eyes on the professor, "Huh?"

"You scoffed."

After a few seconds he exhaled and looked at her, then shifted his eyes at her books, "You're taking contemporary social problems, with Kahn."

Lisa frowned, "Yes…What does that have to do with your scoff?"

He shrugged, "Nothing, its just an anomaly- I like anomalies. Why would you take a class that ends five minutes after this one starts, one which is also all the way on the other side of campus?"

"Davis is a good professor…and its his last year teaching." Both those facts were true, but neither were the reasons Lisa had decided to take them.

Greg let a tiny bit of air out and frowned, "Right. That's why he just said that the most common pediatric endocrine disease is type-two diabetes."

Lisa frowned, "But diabetes _is_ the most common endocrine disease in pediatrics."

"Yes, _type one_- not type two", he said raising his eyebrows.

She looked over at the fact that he had a pencil again and was moving it quickly in between his fingers, but had no notebook, "Why do you have pencil and no paper? Do you not take notes?"

"Eidetic Memory", he shrugged not feeling the need for further explanation.

Lisa breathed in deeply and felt a little worse at that moment when she opened up her own notebook to start taking notes.

As she started paying attention to what the professor was saying, Greg spoke up, "I'm Greg by the way in case you've been curious but too shy to ask."

She bit her lip for a moment and then looked over even though she already knew very well who he was, lots of people did, but she played along anyway, "Greg…?"

"House."

"Like the noun?" she smiled broadly at him.

Greg rolled his eyes with a tiny laugh, "Its funny that you think its original for you to say that."

Lisa swallowed and looked back up at the front of the class, when she heard someone say something next to her, "Don't be offended, he just thinks he's oh _so_ special."

She turned to see a scruffy looking brunette guy with a brown leather jacket, holding a macroeconomics textbook.

When he saw her face, his eyes lit up, "Hey aren't you in my sociology class with Kahn?"

Lisa frowned, "Yes I"m that class but I've never-"

"I sit all the way in the back and you sit all the way in the front. You look different though…must be the fact that you usually wear glasses."

Lisa felt her cheeks getting warm, and tried explaining, "Kahn has really small handwriting."

Greg let out a deep sigh, "This is Dylan Crandall, Crandall meet Lisa Cuddy…are we going to get this over with?"

Dylan looked from Lisa to Greg, "We can do this later-"

Greg shook his head, and handed Crandall a folded piece of paper, who handed him some money in return.

"Are you going to the Sigma-Fi party tonight?" Dylan asked Greg.

Greg actually laughed, "And miss a night with drunk sorority girls? Of course I'm going."

Dylan laughed and turned to Lisa, "How about you?"

"Oh she'll be too busy planning her course schedule for the year 1990", Greg muttered.

Lisa gave him a reproachful look, and turned back to Dylan, "No…I-have to study."

Greg scoffed and gave Dylan a look that said '_see?_'

"Well it was nice meeting you Lisa", and just as fast as abruptly as he'd sat next to her, he was gone.

Once they were alone again she turned back to Greg who'd pocketed the money, "Did you just sell him answers to a test?"

He scoffed and looked at her as if she were crazy, "Of course not. I sold him drugs."

The way he said it with such flippancy made her think that he was lying, but there was also a nagging feeling in the back of her head that said he was telling the truth. Either way, she realized it wasn't any of her business and decided to look back up to the front of the class, wondering why he seemed more annoyed that day.

"Why are you really in this class Lisa Cuddy?"

She cringed.

xxxoxxxo

After much coercion from her roommate, and the fact that Greg would be there, Lisa had begrudgingly agreed to attend the sorority party with her roommate. She'd lied to Dylan when she said she had to study, Lisa actually enjoyed a good party, but there was something about the fact that Greg would be there that made her nervous about it.

She'd had a hard time deciding what to wear. Partially because she'd worn her party dress that afternoon for class, and Greg had already seen her in it. Which why she eventually decided to grab a short skin-tight dress from her roommates closet- they were the same size.

Lisa paired the black dress with bubble-gum pink heels and curled her hair, feeling even more nervous when she looked into the mirror.

It was strange that she'd felt a series of nervous emotions in the past couple weeks that she'd never experienced in her life before. At home Lisa Cuddy was known as a rock, nothing got to her- no one got to her. Even when her father had passed away, she'd been the one to orchestrate most of the funeral decisions because both her mother and sister had been too broken up about it.

But Gregory House- who was still somewhat of a stranger to her, had the ability to ignite tremors and chills in her that were confusing. It wasn't just his looks anymore, which had been enough for her to like him- but it was also his brain. Sure, Lisa had known that he was a legend from Hopkins, because she'd listened in on two girls that had watched him in the bookstore- but seeing it first hand, was something different.

He sat in the back of the classroom because he didn't care about showing off, and he didn't care about correcting the professor obviously even though hew knew he was wrong, but why? It was questions like those that still made him an enigma to her, that made him fascinating.

And as she got to the sorority party and her friend Trisha walked off, Lisa went straight for the keg, needing some liquid courage if she was going to go through with what she was planning.

There was a line at the keg where many were trying to get through to get their cups, only a guy stopped on his way out and looked at Lisa with a smile, "Here you can have mine."

She gave him a flirtatious smile back and took the cups, turning around and walking off while leaving the guy standing there.

After drinking both full cups of the semi-flat beer, Lisa was off- when someone knocked into her and she turned to scowl at them. It was Dylan Crandall.

He recognized her immediately and smiled, "Lisa Cuddy! Sorry about that- running into you I mean."

"Its ok", she semi-slurred, then remembered, "Hey have you seen Greg?"

Dylan smiled and nodded, "He went upstairs to the bathroom-I'm sure if you head up there now he'd still be there…You like him, don't you?"

Lisa bit her lip and couldn't help at laugh, "Is it that obvious?"

"Totally- to me, but don't worry, I doubt he's caught on", he smirked while walking away.

xxxoxxxo

As she made her way up the stairs, she bit her bottom lip, wondering exactly what she'd do. Only knowing that a sense of euphoria was already filling her body just at the thought of him, and she hadn't even seen him yet.

Somewhere in her alcohol-mushed brain, she'd pictured a date first, maybe him asking her out. But after getting to somewhat know him in their class, she'd quickly realized that Greg House wasn't an average guy- that maybe she'd have to make the first move.

He would already be upstairs, there would most likely be a bed in the next room and she'd had two beers already, meaning her inhibitions would be at an all time low and she'd be able to pounce him. Something told her he wouldn't object to that.

She knocked the door Dylan had told her to look for him in, and when there was no answer, she opened the door.

Lisa searched in the bathroom and spotted him with a girl, both next to the vanity with something that greatly held their interest. She was about to leave and close the door again, because if he was in the bathroom with a girl, it obviously meant they wanted to be alone. Only something took her off guard at that second.

Greg slowly slouched over, with his head nearly touching the vanity as he held a short straw with his fingers and snorted something up.

Lisa stood frozen at the door and watched as he went down once more, then finally stood up straight sniffing a couple times and locked eyes with her as he rubbed his nose.

She panicked and shut the door, taking a step back and rushed back down the stairs, until she was outside the sorority house and had made it to the curb, before feeling the need to throw up.

Her head was spinning as the onset of nausea suddenly hit her and she fell to her knees, taking in big breaths of air and shutting her eyes closed.

There were footsteps behind her that slowly became more prominent, until she heard someone sit down next to her on the curb.

"That's why I never drink at these parties, cheap booze equals horrible wasted-ness", Greg boasted next to her with a quickened pace to his voice.

She turned over to him attempting not to puke again, "I only had two beers."

He laughed and blinked his glassy eyes, "And a low tolerance for alcohol. I'm a little disappointed in you Lisa Cuddy, I thought you knew how to party."

"You obviously do. Isn't that dangerous?"

"Don't you know that drinking bad beer is dangerous?"

"Was that cocaine?"

Greg shrugged, "Was that puke coming out of your mouth?"

She grimaced at the word and held her stomach- with all the butterflies and niceness she felt earlier quickly evaporating, "Do you always evade so many questions?"

"Do you always ask so many questions?"

Lisa sighed, and attempted getting back up but began swaying a bit, and Greg shot up to help her stand, holding her by her waist. He smiled widely at her, making his infamous dimples protrude, "You are such a lightweight."

"Let me go. I'm fine", she argued trying to stand up on her own. Greg complied and let go of her, then caught her again as she fell against him.

As her eyes made it up to his own dilated ones, he scoffed, "Here you are wanting to lecture me, and you are high as a kite."

Lisa frowned and tried to gasp, "Of course not- I would never-"

"Did you get the beer from the keg yourself, or did some eager guy give it to you?"

Lisa racked her brain trying to remember, but started feeling dizzy, "I don't-"

It was the last thing she said before everything went black.

xxxoxxxo

When Lisa came to the next day, the first thing she heard was someone speaking spanish.

"No, solo ordené las tortillas y huevos rancheros. Por eso es que no entiendo como el total es veinteocho dolares", she heard Greg say in an apparently annoyed voice.

Lisa rubbed her eyes and sat up on the bed she was guessing belonged to him. He'd pulled the blinds shut and the bedroom was mostly empty, except for the bed, an ottoman by the window and books sprayed out on the floor randomly.

There was another voice too, but she didn't recognize it, "llo no se de lo que habla. Usted ordeno lo que esta aquí y punto. Lo quiere o no?"

"Fine…take your blood money and go", she heard him mutter and slam a door.

Lisa gingerly placed her feet on the wooden floor, hoping her motor skills were back. She wiggled her toes a couple times on the cold floor and stood up slowly, trying to be quiet and hugging herself as she walked out into his living room.

She walked in just as Greg had placed a plastic bag on his coffee table, and looked up at her with a tentative smile, "You're up."

Lisa groggily sat down on his couch and frowned as some of the light coming from outside hit her face, "You know how to speak spanish?"

"Among many other things", he boasted energetically.

As she looked over at him take out to-go boxes out of the plastic bag, she noted his sunken eyes and peppy demeanor. She got the feeling he hadn't slept at all that night from all the coke he'd done.

"Can you turn down the chipper-ness?" she muttered.

"You should eat. It'll make you feel better."

She made a face as he opened up the food and revealed eggs with some red sauce layered on top. Lisa usually loved Mexican food, but at that moment it looked like mushed up puke, "No thanks. I think I just want to sleep some more."

He smiled again, "Classic adverse effects of ecstasy. But seriously you should eat- I ordered this for you not me."

"I'm not hungry….what time is it?"

"Oh around three in the afternoon I'd say."

She unwillingly stood up, heading for his front door, "I should go. I need to study for my english class."

Greg stood up too, and blocked it before she had a moment to get to the handle, "I agree. You should totally leave, but first eat. It will make you feel better and I paid the guy twenty eight dollars for eggs and tortillas."

If it were any other guy blocking her exit and asking her to stay for breakfast, Lisa Cuddy would have kneed him in the groin. But the fact that it was Gregory House, and he had somewhat of hopeful smile and he was asking _her _to stay and eat a very late breakfast…well- she couldn't say no.

xxxoxxxo

_Present Day_

House sat in Cuddy's swiveling office chair, waiting for her to walk in.

He had no real agenda that day- other than attempting to skip clinic duty and hide from Cuddy. He realized that the last place she'd actually look was in her own office.

Eventually he realized that she'd give up and actually find him sitting in her chair, but even that was ok with him. He'd began to enjoy the looks of utter confusion on her face, when he'd ask her questions that would embarrass her and admit she still had repressed feelings for him.

House did however have a question to ask her that day regarding the latest letter he'd just read- and that was whether or not she remembered what type of sunglasses he was wearing for their first class of endocrinology.

As he was playing with his cane, Cuddy walked into her office. She seemed unfazed by the fact that he was waiting for her, and rushed instead to get her coat and purse- only looking at him briefly, "Whatever it is, can this wait until tomorrow?"

"What is it? Have a hot date at a _Mexican _restaurant?" he asked with an edge.

She frowned at him and shook her head, "What? No- I have…an emergency."

"Is everything ok?" He asked sobering up and sat up in her chair, now frowning as well.

Cuddy shook her head and swallowed but didn't look at him, "I don't know."

And without further explanation she rushed out of her office and out of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Leaving House behind to walk out of her office with a frown etched on his face.

As Wilson approached him with a mug of coffee he looked over at him for a moment, "Do you know what's up with her?"

Wilson's eyes went to where Cuddy had just walked out of the front double doors, "Her uncle and aunt on her father's side were in an accident up in New York…they passed away."


	4. Cherry Lollipops

**Ari's Note: **Ok, so I know that the start to this story has been somewhat slow. I'm hoping to redeem myself in this chapter and I really _really_ hope you guys will give it a chance and review! Pretty pretty please? *Bats eyelashes*

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><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part IV

_Cherry Lollipops_

_The Present_

The day following Cuddy, abruptly leaving the hospital- House waited patiently in his office to hear of her return…it never came.

So he waited until the following day, and instead focused on the humorous letters between the Cuddy sisters to keep himself entertained. But after each one that he read- and it seemed like they'd both written one daily to each other because there were a couple hundred of them- he kept pausing to look for her, wondering when she'd be back.

Another day passed- no Cuddy.

House dared not ask about her. Wilson had already suspected there was something going on, after he'd caught House smiling at her back a few days prior. And if he were to ask him what the status on Cuddy was, he'd automatically assume that he was concerned- he couldn't have that.

Cuddy had been gone a total of three days- not that House had been keeping track or anything- he told himself. Though, he had noticed her clear absence at times when Wilson- the interim Dean of Medicine- had shot down every test or procedure he'd asked to perform on his patient. House got the feeling he was doing it to earn respect from his fellow colleagues at the hospital, but it was still very annoying.

It was a funny thing that everyone thought Cuddy let him get away with anything he wanted- ok maybe it was _partially_ true, but it was really wasn't the total truth. She'd just known him long enough to know that he was usually right when it came to his crazy unorthodox procedures he liked to perform on his patients.

If it had been a vacation that she was on, House would have bothered her and called her- maybe even showed up wherever it was that she was. But the fact that she was attending a funeral for her uncle and aunt- that stopped him.

No it wasn't that he felt empathy for her, over the fact that she was going through a difficult time, but because if he tried getting close to her, he feared that she would attempt to lean on him. Maybe she'd even cry on his shoulder? And what he was most scared of, even more than the latter was the fact that he might be ok with it. And honestly, it was all due to those ridiculous letters he'd found.

After weeks of reading the letters between Cuddy and her sister Julia, something had softened when a thought of her came to him. It was like he remembered a younger him and the obvious sparks that there'd been between them.

However, on the fourth day of Cuddy being gone, a low whispering erupted through out the hospital over the fact that she was back. House had picked up on some whispering between nurses and had promptly made his way down the elevator, only stopping to pocket some red lollipops, and one in his mouth before walking unannounced into her office,where she was seated behind her desk reviewing some papers.

"I was wondering when you'd stop by", she said flatly, without taking her eyes off all the papers in front of her.

"You ok?" he asked nonchalantly, plopping on to one of the seats in front of her, and a lollipop into his mouth.

His question caught her attention and she looked up, "Fine. Is there something you want House?"

There was a moment when he stalled, because he had no reason to be there other than to check on her- which she didn't seem to believe. Also he didn't want her to believe that either, so he licked his lips once and cleared his throat trying to think of something on the spot, "Yeah. Next time you decide to ditch your duties of the hospital, you might want to leave someone in charge who can make effective decisions."

"I thought you would have been the _one_ person thrilled to have Wilson in charge?" She scoffed, turning to place a paper in her outbox.

House sucked on his lollipop and shrugged his shoulders, "Wilson is fine as a best friend- but as a Dean of Medicine? He sucks. He wouldn't let me do anything to my patient, who nearly died by the way. In the end it just turned out that she had TB."

Cuddy turned to him seriously, and took a tiny breath, "Noted. Anything else?"

He was a little caught off guard by her aversion to his humor, but shook his head and stood up, ready to walk out. He wasn't going to beg her to tell him how she was doing.

But there was a moment when he felt like really asking if she was ok- really wanting to know exactly what had happened to her extended family, and if _she_ needed anything. But he couldn't bring himself to do it.

And he could also tell when he stood up to turn around that there was a moment where it looked like she expected him to ask too. After all, couldn't they be considered friends after having known each other for almost twenty years?

A few seconds passed by and he shot the thought from his head, taking out his Vicodin instead and popping a pill, to avoid pesky little feelings from festering in his head- they were beginning to be dangerous. He made a mental note to up his dosage.

Right about when he was about to make it to the door, Cuddy spoke up, "House?"

His head snapped around instantly and looked at her expectantly- it was obvious that she needed to say something, she needed to confide in him.

House was nearly ready to listen, and it scared him how much he wanted to hear what was going on with her life. He blamed himself for that, for invading her world by reading those letters that had shed a light on a side of Cuddy he never knew existed.

He'd only seen a fire in her once, and it was the night when…well he didn't want to remember it at the moment- yet there had only been a simple glimpse into the warmness she harnessed. Other than that, he'd felt that just like he, she'd become hard, and had pushed everyone an arms length away.

Honestly, he'd never questioned it. He wasn't one to talk about people's feelings or lack there of, but those letters- there had been a flood of emotions from her that he'd never expected to see. And the funny thing was that instead of wanting to make fun of her or feel a little freaked out by how much she'd liked him- which ok he still did want to, he found himself wanting to see more. And House didn't like that.

So when she'd called his name and he turned his head to hear what she had to say, he felt his heart beating a little fast with anticipation.

Yet, it never came.

What did come, was the front glass door to his body very violently, causing him to fall dramatically on the floor and hit the floor with his bad leg.

He held his breath, as he felt a series of hot searing pain shoot through his thigh. It had been a long time that he'd felt such throbbing in his leg- perhaps not since he'd been hospitalized for the infarction. Every inch of dead muscle surrounding the hole in his thigh lighted up in flaming red pounding pain. The worst part was that after a few seconds it didn't subside, it kept hurting and aching like never before, and he almost feared it would never go away.

There was a rustling noise around him, but he'd closed his eyes at the impact, and held his thigh, not caring what happened around him. He only focused on rubbing it, hoping that he could mentally convince himself it wasn't that bad.

"House? House? Are you ok?", Cuddy was at his side within seconds with both her hands on his back.

He nodded his head but didn't say anything.

"Emily, you need to be careful…You can't just open a door if you know that someone's standing in front of it- its rude. Why didn't you say anything?" Cuddy said to what he assumed was someone young, by the tone in her voice.

He couldn't open his eyes or say anything, for fear of yelling or maybe having painful tears escape his eyes. So after a few more seconds of irregular breathing, he inhaled deeply and swallowed, opening his eyes to see who his assaulter had been.

As House opened his eyes, there was a little girl, who couldn't have been older than five, in front of him.

The girl he assumed to be Emily, had medium olive skin, with big oval hazel eyes and extremely curly brown hair. She was wearing a blue dress with mustard socks and black Maryjane shoes.

He realized as he focused on the little girl, some of the pain had vanished, and instead he just felt the pressure and throbbing of where it had been- so he kept it up.

"I'm so sorry, this is Emily…my- cousin. Emily, what are you doing down here? You were supposed to stay with Ryan in the playroom."

The little girl looked like she was going to cry, or had been crying already, and she shrugged her shoulders, "Ryan left. He said he was going to find something to stimulate his bored brain because I was a bore."

House looked over at Cuddy who let out a huge sigh, "Did he leave the hospital?"

Emily nodded her head, then eyed the lollipops that had fallen out of House's pocket- she looked up at him.

"Sure, take one- its the least I can do after you assaulted me", he muttered- only half serious.

The little girl brightened up instantly and picked up all the lollipops, putting one in her mouth. House could tell that Cuddy didn't look too happy about the whole thing, but let it slide for the time being.

He felt Cuddy place both of her hands on his arm, "Do you think you can stand up?"

"I'm fine", he lied while grabbing his cane and only mildly leaning on her as he stood up.

As soon as he did, the pain return, and Cuddy noticed- helping him to her couch just in time, before his leg gave out completely.

"I'll be right back", she said grabbing Emily by the hand and leading her back out of the office- which left House alone to finally let out a huge sigh of repressed pain.

He took out his prescription bottle and didn't pay attention as he poured a small amount in his palm, swallowing them all at once. After he'd swallowed them, he realized it had been a little bit too much to swallow without anything to wash them down, and turned his head searching for any water or mugs.

There was a black mug at Cuddy's desk, and he painfully stood up, slowly limping his way to her seat, and falling into it. He picked up her almost full cup of coffee and took a large sip, making a face after he realized that it was bitter.

When he put the mug back down, and in the middle of swallowing his last gulp of bitter coffee, his eyes made their way to the papers she'd been looking at on her desk. There were two death certificates and legal papers she'd been in the process of filing out for adoption.

The adoption papers were for and Emily B Windsor and Ryan- but he didn't have a moment to finish reading the papers, when Cuddy walked back into her office.

"Is your leg going to be ok?" there was sincere worry in her voice.

He shrugged, "In about twenty minutes it'll all be behind us."

She rolled her eyes, "Vicodin?"

House nodded and then cocked his head to the side with a frown, "You're adopting kids?"

Cuddy licked her lips and breathed in deeply, "I-" she paused for a while, "Its none of your business."

"That little girl…did she belong to your aunt and uncle? Was she adopted? I mean unless you have a half-Korean, half-black uncle and indian aunt- she was obviously adopted to begin with." He let out vacantly.

"She's actually a quarter Korean, West-Indian, English and Armenian- and she doesn't know she's adopted so don't go breaking her heart…she's already been through a lot", she muttered walking around to where he was seated to gather the piles of papers that were out in the open.

House sighed, "Dammit I was so close…wait, how doesn't she know? I'm pretty sure when she sat down to take a family picture and she saw that everyone else looked the same except for her, it must have peaked her interest."

"She's a child House- a kid her age doesn't understand that sort of thing. Besides it's none of your business."

He scoffed, "I was just curious- that way I know what the name of the five-year-old that I'm going to sue is."

"She's four- and you very well know she didn't mean to hit you. She's been through a lot this past week. Her parents just died, and-" It was almost instant how fast Cuddy began breathing, as she paused to collect herself- not that she let herself cry in front of him anyway.

After a few seconds, she swallowed and took a deep breath, avoiding eye-contact with him, but inevitably falling against her desk.

House took a little breath himself and looked down momentarily at the floor before softly asking, "What happened?"

Cuddy placed a hand on the bridge of her nose and he could tell she was focusing on breathing because she wanted to avoid breaking down in front of him, "They were driving their son- Ryan back from his lacrosse game and there was arguing in the car…My uncle and aunt were in the front and they hit a car coming from the opposite direction dead on. They died instantly upon the impact and Ryan survived by a mere miracle…and luckily Emily was at a babysitter's house."

"So you're adopting them?" he was still a little confused on why the responsibility fell on her shoulders.

"What? Should I hand them off to foster care instead?"

House shrugged and looked away for a moment, "Well we do have a wonderful government system for unwanted kids, but I meant- Isn't there anyone else, like in your family?"

"Not on my uncles side- he was an only child. On my aunt's side, well...Julia already has three girls, she wouldn't be able to handle two more and my mom is well past her years of raising children- especially a rebellious sixteen-year-old boy and a four year old little girl", she muttered, "Besides…I've always wanted kids _someday_."

House took another sip of her bitter coffee, "It's a mistake, you're not the mothering type."

Cuddy scoffed, "Right, you would know."

"I know you're too busy with this hospital. I know that you work more than eighty-hours a week and you secretly come in on your days off to check-in with different departments."

"Are you stalking me?"

House scoffed, "No, everybody knows that stuff. Which is why you adopting these kids isn't going to work. They're going to cramp your style."

Cuddy's mouth contorted into a bit of a frown and she swallowed, hugging herself, "Stacy seems to think I have a great shot of adopting them."

House rolled his eyes as he went to stand up, the Vicodin had began to kick in, "You're using Stacy to help you with this? Then you're really screwed. Last time I used her as an attorney, I got a huge hole in my leg."

He watched as she went to roll her eyes, and then had an instant thought, which formed a smile on her lips, "You're just worried that mommy won't have any time for you. Don't worry House, mommy will still love you."

House bit his lip before letting out a laugh, "See, I knew you were still in love with me."

Cuddy's face fell, but he didn't stop to see it, and walked out of her office instead.

xxxoxxxo

As House walked out of the elevator, he was met by Wilson who was carrying a much more talkative Emily in his arms- whose little mouth was red from the lollipops she'd stolen from him.

When she spotted him with her eyes, they popped wide open, "This is the doctor that gave me the lollipops and that I hit. Lisa said he was mean, but I think he's really nice because he gave me lollipops."

Wilson looked at House with a look that said 'help me', but House just shook his head and scoffed- he had a meeting with a Cuddy letter and his ottoman- he had to put his oncoming buzz to good use.

"Ryan!" the little girl squealed all of a sudden and both House and Wilson turned to see who the little girl was speaking of.

There was a pale teenage boy, who was a tiny bit taller than Wilson, with scruffy light brown hair, bright blue eyes and a cast on his left arm- coming from around the corner. He took a huge intake of breath as his little sister spotted him and walked over to her, "Damn, you didn't get lost."

"Ryan is my brother. He loves me", the little girl said batting her eyelashes while nodding at House and sucking on her last lollipop.

The boy looked over at his sister with amusement, yet flatly said, "Oh so very much."

House worked really hard not to laugh and bit his lip, as he heard Wilson clear his throat, "Well I'm sure he does. And I'm sure he'd love to take you back to the play room, where your aunt Lisa asked you both to wait."

"She's my cousin", Emily corrected as she wiggled herself out of Wilson's arms and walked over to hold Ryan's reluctant unbroken right hand.

When it was clear to Ryan that she wasn't going to let go, he sighed and pulled her towards the elevator, without saying another word to either Wilson or House. But Emily turned around and eagerly waved goodbye to the both of them.

"Nice kids", Wilson said with both arms on his hips, after they'd gotten into the elevator.

House scoffed and made his way towards his office, "Oh yeah, they're lovely. Cuddy's going to have her hands full."

"What do you mean?" Wilson asked as he picked up his pace to catch up with House.

He stopped and turned over to Wilson with a frown, "She didn't tell you? I thought she'd run to go tell you her exciting news…she's adopting them."

Wilson's eyes went wide, "Oh dear mother of god- no. Seriously?"

"That's what I said."

Wilson seemed at a loss of what to say, "But- she…she isn't maternal."

"And that's exactly what I told her. See if we agree, then I really must be right…or wrong? hmm…I'll have to think about that as I take my nap." House pushed his glass door open, and fell onto his comfortable ottoman that was calling his name.

Luckily Wilson caught the point and didn't follow him in, which left House to open up the next 'Cuddy Letter' he hoped would bring some humor into his somewhat weird day that he'd had so far.

_October 29, 1987_

_Lisa, _

_I don't know why you'd want to remember that someone spiked your drink, and how could someone even do that? Is that normal at college parties? Actually, I can't believe you still like the guy after what you said you saw him do, and then he kidnapped you to his apartment? How do you know he didn't rape you? You are a virgin after all-_

House stopped to throw his head back and laugh at that moment. It was amusing that Julia thought she was still a virgin.

Cuddy was no saint.

_-I don't know Lisa, he just sounds sketchy if you ask me. Whatever happened to Atticus? I haven't heard anything about him and you told me he was going to be at Michigan too- mom likes him. _

_Please as a favor for me, and my sanity, stay away from this Greg House guy, he just sounds like he's more trouble than he's worth. _

_your-overly stressed out sister, _

_Julia_

House snickered and pulled out the next one that Cuddy had stapled to her sister's letter, feeling smug at the fact that she'd called him trouble.

_November 2nd, 1987_

_Julia, _

_Do not mention Atticus to me- and I think I may have made Greg seem a little worse than he actually is. He's actually kind of nice, in a weird jerkish way. Well, at least he did a nice thing for me a couple days ago. _

_See, we had a field trip planned for our endocrinology class this past Saturday, and I woke up late to get on the bus that would take us to Ann Arbor's Pediatric Department….._

_TBC…_


	5. Plaid Scarf

**Ari's Note: **I am so sorry this has taken so long to update. I have extreme writer's block, so if you have any inspiring words- please I need some lol. Anywho- I hope you enjoy this! Please let me know your thoughts!

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><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part V

_Plaid Scarf_

_November 2nd, 1987_

_Julia, _

_Do not mention Atticus to me- and I think I may have made Greg seem a little worse than he actually is. He's actually kind of nice, in a weird jerkish way. Well, at least he did a nice thing for me a couple days ago. _

_See, we had a field trip planned for our endocrinology class this past Saturday, and I woke up late to get on the bus that would take us to Grand Rapid's Pediatric Department. Anyway, by the time I got there the bus had left, and just when I had turned around to walk back to my dorm, Greg popped out out of know where on his bike. He made it seem like he'd missed it too, but something tells me he missed it on purpose. _

_He is so…beautiful. _

_Do you think guys know girls have a one-track mind too? I mean obviously I'm totally still a virgin, but just thoughts of Greg make my head go to places it wouldn't have gone to before. And before long I'm stuck in mid-air with not so appropriate thoughts of him. _

_Julia, if only you could see him…maybe then you'd understand my obsession. _

_Your Sister,_

_-Lisa_

_October 31st, Michigan 1987_

A few weeks had passed since the sorority party she'd gone to. After she'd given in the next day to Greg's insistence on eating an afternoon breakfast, she'd left his apartment and had promised herself not to ever go back to her endocrinology class.

That was obviously easier said than done.

No matter how embarrassed she'd been to be stuck with him in that state- or to have witnessed his party habits, she'd been unable to resist going back to class. Not that it mattered, since he missed their next class. It had made her nervous, was he dreading seeing her? Had she freaked him out with her own behavior? Lisa felt anxiety at the thought and worried about his lack of presence in the class.

However, his absence didn't excuse her overactive imagination from not thinking of him- he was still in her every thought and it was becoming a problem.

It was catching up to her.

In fact, taking six courses and her obsession with Greg House had become somewhat of a problem for Lisa. The reason it mattered was because, challenges weren't something she encountered that often. Her unusual crush on him had taken a toll on her psyche.

Frivolous thoughts of him took up time while she was in her other classes, studying, even lying in her bed at night. Just the mere pondering of him, now ignited a rush that began in her chest and ran ramped through the rest of her body. All she had to was remember his smoldering look, and that was enough to set her off.

Lisa had slept with guys before, she'd had boyfriends and gone on a healthy amount of dates, just like any other young girl- but she'd never felt what she was experiencing with Greg. She'd never felt like that before, and the worst part was that she hadn't even gotten to first base with him yet. Still, it was too distracting, and she'd gotten behind in some classes.

Which was why on the night before her field trip for her endocrinology class, she'd stayed up studying almost until 3AM to catch up on some of her english courses. And because she'd stayed up so late she woke up just fifteen minutes before the bus Professor Davis had provided for all the students, was scheduled to leave for Grand Rapids's Endocrinology Clinic.

Lisa jumped out of bed and quickly threw on the first things she could find in her closet, only stopping in the bathroom to brush her teeth, and place her curly hair into a high ponytail. After she put on a coat, and grabbed her backpack, she ran out of her dorm- hoping to make it in time to the bus.

xxxoxxxo

When she got to the class meeting spot, she was wheezing and out of breath from all her sprinting. Only as she looked around, she sadly realized her class had already left. It sent a pang of anxiety through her, because she'd never missed a bus before in her entire life.

At first, she tried reasoning with herself that it wasn't that bad. It wasn't like it actually counted towards her grades, after all she was only auditing it, yet- she knew it wasn't because of that. What was upsetting was that she'd just missed a chance to spend two hours on a bus with Greg House. She swallowed at all the possibilities that could've happened.

Just as she'd turned around to walk away, there was a rumbling engine behind her, and Lisa turned around to see a bike pull up to the curb, right where she was standing.

And riding the bike was Greg.

He was wearing a thick black leather jacket, with a red and black plaid scarf, and his helmet over his head- which she was sure was hiding a cocky smirk.

She blinked a couple times, and he slowly took off his helmet to reveal sure enough, the smile she'd been afraid of seeing. Why was it, that even after the disastrous encounter she'd had with him at the sorority party, and the morning after- that he still had the same affect on her? It wasn't fair.

As she was going to say something, he beat her to it, "Missed the bus too?"

Lisa frowned, and licked her lips, wrapping her fingers on the sleeves of her top, "Yeah. I guess we both missed it?"

"Not necessarily."

For a moment, she was about to ask what he'd meant, and stared at him and his bike- until she realized what he'd meant.

"Oh no. If you're suggesting I get on that bike with you and drive almost two hours to Grand Rapids- you're insane. There is absolutely _no_ way I'm going to agree with that", Lisa scoffed.

Greg raised an eyebrow at her and let out a single laugh, "Yes you will."

She immediately shook her head and crossed her arms in an attempt to keep herself warm, "No, no, no. There's no way you're going to convince me."

Ten Minutes Later

Lisa trembled as she wrapped her arms loosely around his waist and as soon as she'd done it, Greg had grabbed both her hands in his and wrapped them tightly around him, "Do you want to fall off?"

She muffled a no through his helmet that he'd given her and she swallowed, "Are you sure you won't need your helmet to drive?"

"I'll be fine", he said putting on his black wayfarer sunglasses, and kicking up the parking stopper as they took off.

It was only about a half-hour into their drive that it finally hit her that she had her arms wrapped around his waist- they were around _Gregory House's_ waist. There was a moment where her heart began to beat fast, and she wanted to fangirl a little at the thought that she was touching him- but she instead closed her eyes and tried remaining calm.

Lisa only wished that she weren't wearing the helmet so she could smell him- and yes she knew that sounded creepy. But what girl wouldn't take the chance to bury her face in the crook of his neck and breathe in what was sure to be a heavenly scent of a man? Actually, she thought- all she needed was a ballad by David Bowie to complete the scene of riding on the Greg's bike with her arms wrapped around him.

But instead, she just sighed and without thinking, placed one of her mitten-free warm hands underneath his shirt to his bare skin. Right when her hand made contact with his skin, she felt him instantly recoil from her touch and she swore that she heard him stifle a laugh.

She frowned, was Gregory House ticklish?

Her hands made their way back over his t-shirt, but still underneath his leather jacket, to keep them warm- for the remainder of their drive.

xxxoxxxo

When they'd gotten to Grand Rapid's Endocrinology Clinic and Lisa had plopped off of the bike- she'd never been happier to feel the ground. Something about bikes- though undoubtedly and unbelievably sexy, where completely frightening to ride on.

After she'd taken off his helmet, and looked at Greg's face, it was easy to tell that he was trembling from the cold as well- after all it was close to the 40's.

"Oh my god, why didn't you say anything?" Lisa asked instinctively placing her warm hands on his ice-cold face.

Greg frowned but didn't move his face away from her hands, "It was refreshing."

Lisa smiled, but didn't say anything, just attempted to warm his face, and as she was going to say something- out of the corner of her eye, she saw the bus from their school pull up, "Wow. How fast were you driving?"

Greg turned his face to look at the bus behind them, "Oh just in the low nineties."

Her jaw dropped a little and for some reason she felt the instinct to playfully push his shoulder, but something stopped her. And it was the confusion of what was happening between them. Not that anything was, but it was strange none the less.

She knew she liked him, there was no doubt of that, what girl wouldn't after all? He was incredibly witty and intelligent, and not to mention handsome. But what did _he_ see her as? Some annoying girl that sat next to him in their class? A friend? Because why else would he purposely miss the bus, so he could give her a ride?

The questions were driving her insane, and she only broke out of them when he got up from the bike and started walking towards the rest of the class and inside the building.

Lisa sighed, and followed his lead.

Just as the class followed Professor Davis down a corridor- as he spoke in his low somber voice, Greg turned around and smiled at Lisa, "Do you want to do some _real_ learning today?"

"I'm not sure?" she answered honestly and slowly. As she was beginning to get to know Greg, she feared what his meaning of 'real learning' entailed.

His eyes shifted away from hers as he studied the hall they were in, until they rested on a spot, and they turned back to her, "Follow me."

He started walked away in the opposite direction of the class, and Lisa looked from where everyone else was walking- to where Greg had gone into. It was no question, she knew to go with the class- it was the obvious thing to do. It didn't seem to matter though, because her feet had made the decision to follow him into the doctors' locker room.

Once they were both inside, and saw that no one else was in there, Lisa looked towards the door as Greg searched the lockers, "What the hell are you doing? Do you want to get us in trouble?"

"We won't get in trouble", he stated evenly.

"Of course we will! And then we'll get on academic probation-"

He listened ideally as she went on, she knew that, but kept going through the lockers, until he found something he was looking for and pulled out a white lab coat. He smiled, but then it fell, and Lisa realized it was because it was her size and not his- he looked up at her and threw it to her, "Guess you're _Dr. Cuddy_ today."

Lisa caught the coat in her arms and eyed it, then looked back up at him with a scoff, "No way."

"Oh come on, live a little", he shrugged, taking off his jacket to reveal a light blue button up wrinkled dress shirt over a white band tee.

She licked her lips and watched as he placed a random lab coat on, then relented and took off her own coat to place the white one on.

Greg smiled and shot his eyes wide open- sarcastically, "Why Dr Cuddy, fancy seeing you here."

"You realize that this is completely insane, right?" she whispered as they made their way into the hallway.

"Insanely _fun _maybe."

Lisa smiled nervously at a nurse that passed by and quickened her pace to be inline with Greg, "What exactly are we doing?"

"Isn't obvious? Going to treat patients", Greg's eyes scanned the floor map in front of him, and turned left- Lisa followed him.

"That's insane- we can't do that", she hissed at him as they entered the clinic waiting room.

Greg picked up a file from the patient waiting but looked up at Lisa before calling out his name, "Is insane the word of the day? Because if it is, you picked the wrong day- it would be better suited at an asylum."

When she didn't say anything he looked up to the waiting room, "Ryan McDonald?"

xxxoxxxo

Ryan McDonald was a ten year old boy, who looked like 'Chunk' from _The Goonies. _He had the same curly locks, freckles sprinkled all over his face, and the exact same rabbit teeth when he smiled. That was what Lisa was thinking when she looked at him work his way up to the exam bed- and she doubted that Greg shared her same thoughts as she watched him eye the boy.

What he did though- was a look of deep thought, it was like he was examining Ryan with only his eyes, and he smirked after a minute and noted something on the boy's chart- before handing it over to her.

It said, '_Fatty_'.

Greg looked over at the mom, "So it says here your primary doctor suspected he had hypothyroidism or some other endocrinological disorder?"

Just like the boy, Lisa watched as he examined the mom while she started talking about why it was she thought her son had something wrong with him- all the while Ryan sat quietly, letting his mom do all the talking.

"Now Brian, does it only hurt in your stomach? Do you have pain anywhere else? Any other reason you think you have hypothyroidism?" Greg asked pretending to look serious- though as far as she could tell it was a facade of amusement that was truly on his face.

The little boy shook his head, but his mother spoke up, "His name is Ryan."

Greg looked up at the mom- blankly, from where he was feeling the boys glands, "I know. That's what I said."

"No, you said Ry-"

"So Brian, how many chocolate bars do you eat a day and just how much past your bedtime do you stay up?" Lisa watched as Greg asked the ten year-old boy, and placed the stethoscope back around his neck.

The mom gasped and gave Greg a raging expression, "_Ryan_ does not eat chocolate. He is on a very strict diet and goes to bed every night at nine."

Lisa went to interrupt Greg, who was clearly intimidating the little boy, but when she went to speak up- Greg beat her to it.

He cocked his head to the side, and frowned at him, "See I'm willing to bet that from the very premature bags under your eyes, the chocolate stains on your pants- that you stay up until two-ish? and you're hiding empty chocolate bar wrappers in between your mattresses."

Ryan's eyes popped wide open and but his mom kept her grey eyes on Greg, "How dare you accuse my son of those ridiculous lies! We were referred to this clinic by his primary physician-"

"-Who's an idiot", Greg scoffed as he took the file from Lisa's hand and made a note, then went to stand up, "Your kid doesn't have any endocrinological disorder. He's just sneaking candy bars and watching TV when you black out after all your drinking. Hell, that's probably why he's stress eating to begin with and can't sleep."

Lisa's eyes popped open, but at that point she just kept her mouth shut, as if she were watching a car crash she really couldn't prevent.

The mom frowned for a second then crossed her arms defensively, which only made Greg smile, "If you're about to ask how I know that- it's easy. For one there's the stench of alcohol that's oozing from your pores, the sweat on your forehead because you haven't had your post-breakfast drink yet, the more than obvious beer belly that you're attempting to hide with that loose shirt, and the fact that your irises are turning yellow- which by the way means your liver is failing." He paused and turned over to Ryan, "Don't worry kid, you'll be fine. It's your mom who's dying."

Without saying anything else, Greg started walking out of the room and Lisa only smiled weakly at the mom before she began to follow him out.

Only as he'd opened the door, someone else had opened it- another doctor, who eyed them both with a peculiar expression. He looked down at a chart and then at the door number, while scratching the side of his head as if confused.

"Who are you?"

"I'm covering for for Dr Brown. I actually work over at the Ann Arbor Endocrinology Department", Greg let out without a beat. It was like he'd rehearsed what to say.

The doctor frowned, "No you're not. I'm Dr Brown, and I'm not sick."

"Thank god! I heard you had mono", Greg attempted to cover up with a slap on his back as he inched his way around him, Lisa followed his step.

"Who are you? And who is she?" He pushed, starting to get a little frustrated.

Greg turned back to Lisa and pulled her hand, "Run!"

xxxoxxxo

Once they had safely left the clinic and made it to his bike, Greg doubled over, letting out a laugh- a real laugh that lit up his face in a way that Lisa had never seen before. But she didn't smile, partly because she was still trembling from almost having gotten caught.

"Why are you laughing?"

Greg eyed her, "That was fun."

She scoffed at him, "Are you insane? We almost got caught! Do you realize what would have happened, had we been stopped by security?"

He stood back up and rolled his eyes. After he got on to his bike, and patted it- motioning for Lisa to join him- and said, "Again with the word of the day- it should really be 'erratic' or 'dreary' instead- and we wouldn't have gotten caught."

"Oh yeah? Why's that Einstein- since you're obviously 'oh so smart'?" Lisa asked placing her arms around his waist tightly.

He shrugged, "I Just know."

""You really think you're something special, don't you?" She muttered, and though she meant for it to sound condescending, instead she realized that there was a glimmer of true wonder in her question.

Greg turned his head and looked back at her, before taking off, "Well my mom always said so."

xxxoxxxo

"I'll have the house double cheeseburger with a side of fries and a beer- she'll have the same", Greg announced handing both of their menus back to the bar tending waitress.

Just when she was about to turn to leave, Lisa placed her hand on top of the menu to stop her, "Actually- she'll have a salad with italian dressing- no burger, no fries…and a beer."

The waitress made the change on her order pad and walked off.

Greg rolled his eyes, "Don't tell me you're a vegetarian."

"Since I was twelve- that was also the year I decided to become a doctor and that I wanted to be Dean of Medicine by thirty", she let out proudly.

He was silent for a moment and then nodded, "That explains it."

"Explains what?"

"Why you're so anal."

She scoffed, "I am _not_ anal."

"Are so."

"Am not."

He laughed, "You didn't want to come in here because you were afraid of ruffians."

"It's a sleazy bar on the side of a lonely road. Besides how do you figure being ambitious and driven is considered anal", she whispered to him through gritted teeth.

Greg shrugged his shoulders, "Because everyone who wants to be Dean of Medicine at thirty is pretty much anal. And I think this place has character, plus it has karaoke _and _there's a motel attached- this place screams potential."

"Yeah- the potential to get drugged and raped."

He scoffed, and bit his lip, "See, If I didn't already know you, I would say you are super anal. But I know you're just speaking from past experience- not the raped part but the drugged one. Anyway…you, Lisa Cuddy- need to let loose."

The waitress came back with their beers, and Greg instantly chugged his down as she slowly sipped from hers. After the first sip went down her stomach, she winced at the stale taste of it. Even their beer was funky.

"I think our definitions of letting loose are quite different- I've seen what yours is", she said with an eyebrow raised as he cocked his jaw to the side.

Greg took a huge breath of air in, "Just another example of how you're anal."

"Oh right, I'm anal because I think snorting cocaine is bad", she rolled her eyes.

At last it finally seemed for a moment like he was getting annoyed but instead he just let out a light laugh, "Why are you evading from the fact that you have a huge stick up your ginormous ass?"

Lisa dropped her jaw and was about to get up to leave when he suddenly looked nervous and explained, "By ginormous- I mean very robust and appealing ass- it's actually a good thing."

Truth be told, she had always been sensitive about her butt. From the first time she'd hit puberty it had expanded so fast that her mother had worked her out like a mouse on a wheel to try and get it down to what it had been before.

And after a moment of more thinking on her part, her brain began to remind her that he'd just commented on the fact that he liked her ass and that was a start. So instead, while she stayed quite to pretend that she still felt insulted by his comment- truly Lisa was inwardly smiling at the fact that he'd commented about something at all.

"Oh crap", she heard Greg let out and she snapped her head up to see what he was talking about. He had his eyes focused outside, and when Lisa turned to see what he was looking at, it became clear- it was raining.

xxxoxxxo

It wasn't just lightly sprinkling outside- but pouring down like they were in a middle of a storm and it pretty much guaranteed that they'd have to stay the night. She didn't want to stay, especially not in a motel, but she preferred it to riding back on a motorcycle- she didn't want to die.

After about four beers, Lisa knew it was time to stop drinking, though that didn't stop Greg from going on.

It was on his sixth beer that he'd finally gotten up from his seat and turned to look at Lisa with a sly smile, "Go along ok? I'm going to get us a free motel room."

She frowned and opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but he was already up at the stage and whispered something to the guy at the karaoke machine before taking the mike and clearing his throat, "This is for my girlfriend Lisa, sitting right there- hi honey."

A lot of the bikers in the bar turned to look at her and she felt her cheeks getting warm as she waved to Greg nervously.

As soon as the beat to the song started, Lisa knew what it was- I want to know what love is by Foreigner. And as he began to sing Greg closed his eyes, "_I gotta take a little time.."_

Lisa slumped down in her seat a little as he sang with one hand wrapped around the mic and the other holding a beer bottle. She was beginning to regret not having stopped him when he ordered his fourth beer.

But even as drunk as he was, she could tell that he was an extremely good singer. She wasn't the only one who had noticed though- because half way through the song he was getting cheers from everyone in the bar and even some older girls who were looking at him with interest and giving her dirty looks.

By the end of the song there were even people singing along with him as he belted out to her, "_I wanna know what love is- I want you to show me…"_

When the song came to a finish, the room erupted in loud applause and Greg looked straight at her- clearly still in character and asked, "Lisa Cuddy will you marry me?"

The crowd suddenly got quiet and she felt the whole room turn and look at her awaiting her response and in an attempt to not look like a bitch and go along with his charade, she weakly trembled, "Yes."

Again everyone started woo-ing and clapping as they made a path so Greg could walk over with her as he took another swig of his beer. It was funny to her that no one saw how obviously fake it all was. But when he got to her and put down his beer and pulled her up with the other- she was pretty sure if she'd been a spectator she would have believed it too.

Because Greg swept her into his arms and held the small of her back with one as he smashed his warm, moist lips with hers.

She felt her knees nearly give out.

xxxoxxxo

"Told you I'd get us a free room for the night", He said after he closed the door and hoped on to the bed.

She scoffed at him, "But did you really have to embarrass me by asking for all those condoms?"

He shrugged, "I needed to make it believable. Hey do you realize we got engaged on Halloween?"

Lisa laughed, "Does that mean our fake-engagement is doomed?"

"Oh quite the contrary- I think its good luck."

Suddenly she froze remembering something, "Damn! It's halloween? I had a party to go to with my roommate."

"Maybe you're not as anal as I'd thought- only slutty girls go out on halloween."

Lisa rolled her eyes and looked around the room, realizing it was only one bed and no couch- he seemed to catch what she was thinking and patted the empty space next to him, "Oh come on- I wont bite."

It wasn't that she minded sleeping in the same bed with him- because by all means she didn't. And if she wanted to be completely honest with herself- when he'd asked for all those condoms she had gotten excited for a second even if she'd hid it. But Lisa didn't want him to think she was easy- because he wasn't a conquest to her anymore, what she wanted from him was becoming different.

He spoke up still with a slight slur and broke her away from her thoughts, "Besides you're not my type so you have nothing to worry about." and he turned on the bed, facing the opposite direction, letting out yawn.

Just as she'd felt that she'd finally gotten somewhere with him, and felt there was a glimmer of hope that he may like her- he'd completely deflated her hope and she made her way over to the bed with a feeling of complete crush fill her.

Once she'd gotten on to her side of the bed, Greg turned over with the condoms in between his fingers, "Wanna split them with me?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Preview For Part VI:<strong>_

"_What are you doing here?" House asked the five-year-old, who'd made herself very comfortable on his ottoman. _

_She smiled widely at him and wiggled her eyebrows, "Got anymore lollipops?"_

_In fact he did, but he wasn't in the mood for sharing for some reason and sighed, "No. I'm cutting you off kid- you gotta know when to stop."_

_Emily frowned and crossed her arms, "Lisa was right about you, you're mean."_

_House frowned and decided to play along- making his voice deep , "Yes, I'm- the grinch."_

_The little girl's eyes popped wide open as she jumped off his ottoman and ran out of his office._


	6. Sexy Nurse

**N/A: I am so terribly sorry this has taken so long to get out. Life- it can be so time consuming lol. However, I have a new refreshed inspiration to write this fic and I feel like I finally have a really good grip on how its going to continue going. :) SO please give it another shot, as I am super excited to continue it! BTW for purposes to this fic Crandall and Stacy are cousins :) ENJOY!**

* * *

><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part VI

_Sexy Nurse_

_The Present_

House wasn't one to keep up with Holidays. The only one he tolerated was Christmas, and even then it was solely because he always made out with all the presents when his diagnostic team did secret santa. It was for that reason, that on that chilly Monday morning when he made his way into PPTH- that he had no inkling of what day it truly was.

He knew the day before had been Sunday and also October 30th, but he really hadn't put much thought into what it meant the next day would be.

It was once he'd made his way through the glass doors and saw Cuddy's soon-to-be little girl-Emily attempting to run away from Nurse Brenda- and with a Supergirl costume on, that it truly hit him. It was Halloween, which he thought also meant there would be more lollipops for him to steal- strictly cherry ones of course, because the others just weren't worth it.

He was able to make his way safely to the kiosk to get his daily messages, when Cuddy approached him, "You owe me."

House read through the messages, crumpling them up after a second and throwing them in the trash bin, "How many times will I have to tell you Dr Cuddy- No means no."

Cuddy smiled crookedly at him but rolled her eyes, heaving a sigh, "You've had weeks to get those reviews done and I haven't received any of them."

"Hmm…maybe it has something to do with your niece hurting my leg?… I should have pressed charges-"

"Oh stop it House. You're just using that as an excuse to get out of actually putting thought into what you think of them." she huffed and followed him when he started walking towards the elevator.

He stopped and turned back to look at her, "Are you following me?"

"Are you going to write your evaluations?"

He smirked, and was about to retort when someone interrupted him.

"Lisa! Lisa!" Emily ran up to her, holding her red cap with both hands.

House licked his lips and let out a bored sigh as he watched Cuddy turn down to look at the little girl, "Yes?"

"Are we inviting him?" Emily moved her eyes up to House.

He frowned, but didn't say anything. Instead Cuddy looked up at him for a moment and then back at Emily with a hesitant smile, "Dr House is busy-"

"No I'm not." In truth House had no idea what the little girl spoke of, but he was mildly intrigued.

Emily spread her eyes, "See!"

Cuddy sighed, and shook her head at the little girl, "He won't want to go-"

"Yes I will", House insisted then paused and added, "…go where exactly?"

"We're having a halloween party tonight!" Emily exclaimed excitedly at him jumping up and down.

House looked at Cuddy, "You were having a party and weren't going to invite me? I think I'm hurt."

She rolled her eyes, "It's a party for _children_ House."

"I like kids."

"No you don't."

"Oh please! Can he come Lisa?" Emily begged her while pulling down on her skirt and looking up at her.

House put his palms together and held his cane in between them, emoting a fake pout at Cuddy too. He wasn't sure why he suddenly wanted to go- because Cuddy was right, he didn't like children. But perhaps it was the fact that she didn't want him to go that had him so intrigued now.

Cuddy smirked and rolled her eyes, "Sure, why not? The more the merrier."

Nurse Brenda came up at that moment, looking disheveled and out of breath, "Emily you can't keep disappearing like that. You were supposed to stay with the other children-"

"They're sick- I don't want to get sick", she explained with her hands on her hips.

The argument between the little girl and Nurse Brenda distracted Cuddy enough, that House was able to get into the elevator that had just opened. But at the very moment when it was about to close, Cuddy noticed and quickly jumped in too.

When she did, the abrupt jump in, before the doors closed caused her to fall off balance on her feet, and she fell straight onto House's chest. He was able to react fast enough to catch her, and they looked at each other for a moment- as their faces came into close contact.

There was a tiny jolt of unfamiliar feelings that spread through his skin at her touch- something he hadn't felt for a long time, and it spread through out at him as the prolonged exposure to hers continued. Cuddy too seemed to be in a haze as she inhaled slowly with her mouth slightly agape.

After a silent moment, she pulled away from him and cleared her throat, while she patted down her skirt that had ridden up, "Uh, thanks."

"No problem."

He looked away from her and tried to occupy his attention with anything other than Cuddy and the fact that he'd seen straight down her blouse at the familiar twins.

"You're not really going to the party, are you?" House knew she was trying to distract the very uncomfortable moment they'd just had.

He shrugged, "Why not? I love a good party."

"It's only going to be children- we'll probably be the only adults there. Other than Ryan- and he'll be in his room the entire time."

House frowned, "Who's Ryan?"

"My other cousin that I'm adopting."

"You know calling them cousins is really strange, right?"

Cuddy frowned, "Well they are my cousins, what else should I call them?"

He shrugged, "Brats? Niece and Nephew? Why are you having a Halloween party for them anyway? Their parents just died, shouldn't they still be all depressed."

"Its been three weeks, and Nolan said that they needed some normalcy back in their lives- god knows Ryan could use it. He doesn't speak to me at all. All he does is lock himself up and blasts his electric guitar."

House yawned- then stopped in the middle, "Oh- I'm sorry, you were just getting so boring that I was falling asleep."

Cuddy rolled her eyes, and started walking out as the elevator door opened, "You're such an ass."

"Not as big as yours", House called closing the doors and heading up another floor to his office.

xxxoxxxo

"You need to renew your license", Stacy announced as she walked into House's office.

House, who had been busy sucking on a lollipop with his legs propped up on his desk as he read through a chart, looked up with a frown, "What?"

"Your medical license- it expires in less than a month. Did you know about this?" She asked pushing his legs off the desk and setting some files on it instead.

He sat up straight and took the lollipop out of his mouth, noting the light scent of perfume coming off her body and the fact that she had a fresh coat of lipstick on.

"I already put in request to renew it", he said still holding a frown but not taking his eyes off of her. He'd dated Stacy long enough to know what a fresh coat of lipstick and perfume meant- she was pissy.

She hadn't looked up from all the array of papers in front of her, but House could tell that there was a deeper meaning for her being there- not just the wanting to make sure he kept a medical license, "Well its still processing and if you don't push them to renew it, you'll be in trouble and put the hospital in deep liability."

"You're pissy, is Mark not putting out?"

Stacy finally looked up from her papers with a very slight sigh, "Are you listening to me?"

"Yes, and your evasion's answered my question. Just because he's not putting out doesn't mean you have to take it out on the rest of us. I know a great escort service if you're interested."

House propped his legs back up on top of his desk, and Stacy cocked an eyebrow, "You?"

"Oh no, I'm off the market at the moment", he said absentmindedly then placed the lollipop back in his mouth.

As soon as he realized what had just come out of his mouth, he popped it back out and quickly did some damage control, "I'm taking a vow celibacy- to show Wilson how to love himself."

Stacy who in turn knew House very well, smiled, "Who is she?"

House scoffed and rolled his eyes, "There is no _she, _there is only a me. I'm taking time to focus on myself."

"Right, and I'm still pinning away for you."

"See, we agree", House smiled sarcastically as he stood up, "Now I'd love nothing more than to continue this conversation, but I have clinic duty and If I don't show up, Cuddy will bring out the leather whips she keeps at home. See ya."

xxxoxxxo

For the past couple months House's behavior had gone from peculiar, to down right uncharacteristic of him- and Wilson couldn't figure out why.

He'd tried asking House the past few weeks what was going on, he seemed to be daydreaming at times, laughed by himself as he stared into space and even smiled. It was all really quite strange, but eventually he'd given up after much asking. After all he knew that in the end if there was something that House was hiding, he'd have to confide in him.

Which is what happened on that Halloween morning that House burst into Wilson's office.

He didn't say anything- as usual, just took his seat and sighed deeply, running a hand along his face, "I think I wanna sleep with Cuddy."

He couldn't help it, Wilson snorted and shook his head, "Is that supposed to be news?"

House gave him a sharp look and let out a breath of air, while rolling his eyes, "Its her fault."

"Oh yes, she's devious, that one- she purposely wears those low cut tops, extra tight skirts, just to mess with you-"

"She does!"

It was Wilson's turn to roll his eyes, "Cuddy is not trying to subconsciously make you want to bang her."

House bit his lip and looked at him for a second before looking away.

Wilson frowned, "There's something else though, isn't there?"

His friend muttered something along the lines of 'Istolesomethingfromherhouse', but didn't meet his eyes.

"What did you say?"

House looked up at the ceiling and began his elaborate explanation into the letters he had stolen from Cuddy's home, the time that he and his lackeys had gone to search it. And how the letters span from the first time she'd laid eyes on him and had instantly fallen in love with him to just recently and how the common subject in the ones he'd read so far was him.

Was it not for the reason that House had evidence to prove his case, Wilson would have undoubtedly admitted his friend into a psych ward, for what he was telling him seemed entirely far-fetched and completely unlike the Cuddy he knew.

But what was more surprising than anything else was that House had never really told Wilson details of their time at Michigan together- only that they'd shared a class. But as Wilson himself began to read a couple of the first letters that House shared with him, his eyes grew and grew until he thought they might pop out from all the earth-shattering revelations about Cuddy's feelings towards the then 'Greg House'.

When House had finished with everything he'd read up to that point he inhaled and played with his cane, "She invited me over to her Halloween party tonight- well her _niece _did, but same difference."

Wilson who was still in shock over the obsessive Cuddy in the letters shook his head and tried regaining his voice, "And you're going?"

"Why not? Kids, Cuddy, people, dancing- its totally my scene."

"More like things you run away from- oh wait, sorry I forgot, you can't run."

House made a pretend hurt face, "Words hurt you know."

"House…this is a huge invasion of privacy. Cuddy probably never expected for you to find those letters", he stressed, lowering his voice as if afraid someone might overhear them.

"_I know_. Which is precisely why I took them", he said as if it where the most obvious thing in the world, while pulling out a lollipop from his jacket and plopping it in his mouth with a huge breath, "She's making me feel funny. I don't like it."

"Hmm…those pesky feelings called love can be so annoying-"

House scoffed, "What I feel for Cuddy is far from love."

Wilson gave up and sighed, sorting some of his papers that were laying on his desk, "Well, do you want me to come with? Julie is going out with her friends."

He plopped the lollipop out of his mouth with a frown, "Trouble in paradise?"

Wilson sighed and began to shrug his shoulders about to tell him what was going on when House unexpectedly stood up, "Never mind- I don't want to know. And no, you girls will just gossip all night or you'll pour out your heart about your wife- no thanks. I'll just give you the play by play tomorrow."

But as Wilson nodded, House was out the door. He smiled, for a cripple, House was exceptionally fast at times.

xxxxoxxxxo

After he'd rand the doorbell for a second time and listened to the loud screaming of children coming from inside Cuddy's home, House seriously considered just leaving. What was he proving anyway? To be honest, he wasn't so sure what he was doing to begin with.

"_Ryan get the door!" _It was her voice.

A few seconds later before he could even start walking away, the door was pulled open to reveal a vaguely familiar looking teenager with a broken arm, who House quickly remembered was Cuddy's 'cousin'.

"Can I help you?" Ryan looked at House strangely- the boy clearly didn't remember meeting him in the hallway the day that Wilson had been taking care of his little sister.

House opened and closed his mouth a couple times looking inside, then made his way in without looking at the kid again, "No not really."

When he got to the kitchen, Cuddy was behind the island, placing disproportioned balls of cookie dough on a cookie sheet and looked up at him in her costume.

She was dressed up as sexy nurse.

He cracked a smile and laughed, and her cheeks instantly got pink, "I didn't think you'd show."

"Are you kidding me? I love Halloween parties and kids."

She gave him a look and attempted to remove the wooden spatula from the bowl with the cookie dough to place more on the sheet and instead flung a whole bunch of cookie dough on to the floor, "You hate both, so there must be an ulterior motive to why you're here. Have you come to see how I masterfully fail as an adoptive mother?"

After hanging his jacket on the coat rack in the hallway, House made his way around the counter where she was standing and shook his head as he washed his hands and turned back over to her, rolling up his sleeves, "No, I don't need any evidence for that- scoot."

Cuddy- who was becoming confused, moved over and watched as he took off all the cookies from the sheet and balled them up into perfectly proportioned round balls, "You know how to make cookies?"

"Well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out…Don't you have a maid to do this?" he asked curiously not taking his eyes off the cookie dough he was rolling.

"She has her own children to take trick-or-treating…and she refused- even after I offered to double her salary for the night", Cuddy mumbled falling against her fridge.

House laughed, and heard as the children laughed too, "So who's watching them right now?"

"I rented a magician slash halloween historian, I'm actually surprised that it's working. They've been laughing at him for hours…You didn't actually think I was going to watch them the whole night, did you?"

"And you want to be a mother? Are you sure?"

Cuddy pushed herself up off of the fridge and turned on the oven as House had finished filling the cookie sheet, "We're not having this conversation again. And besides, I'm more interested in why you're here."

House stopped mid track on his way to the oven and gave her a strange look, then placed the cookies inside her oven, "I don-"

"I'm going out", there was a voice at the doorway leading into the hallway and they both turned to look at Cuddy's teenage cousin Ryan who was putting on his leather jacket.

He hadn't really paid attention before or noticed but House realized that Ryan had the same authoritative tone as Cuddy- it was easy to see that they were related.

House stayed silent but watched as Cuddy's demeanor changed and she crossed her arms, "I don't think so- It's a school night-"

Ryan gave her an annoyed look and sighed, "I know you forget these things, but I'm not in school- ergo Its not a school night."

"It doesn't matter Ryan, you're sixteen- you aren't going out."

He looked at her emotionless and shrugged his shoulders, "And that makes a difference how?"

"I don't even know who you're going out with. No."

It seemed like what she had said hadn't fazed him at all and he merely looked down at his watch on his unbroken arm before opening the door, "It's getting late, I better go- _see yah_."

After the front door had slammed and House saw Cuddy's mouth dangling open, he turned away attempting to avoid any conversation that would involve her complaining about Ryan.

"I bet if we tried, you could fit two cookie sheets in there, do you have another?" He asked in a lame attempt to distract her.

Of course it didn't work, and when she looked at House it almost seemed like she was angry at him- even though he'd had nothing to do with clear indifference her cousin had shown her.

House waited for her to say something, but for a few seconds she just looked at him- glaring- and at a point he thought she may actually hurt him.

House swallowed, "So is that a no? To the cookie sheet?"

"No", Cuddy finally reacted and turned away to put away the carton of eggs she'd used for the cookie mix. She slam med the door shut and crossed her arms again.

He knew he'd regret it, but was also aware of the fact that if Cuddy kept in her rage that she'd eventually explode, which would end up being worse in the long run. So he did what he hated most and screwed his face as he commented, "So…it seems like you two are getting along great."

She exhaled deeply, "He's just going through a rough time. He was in the accident that killed his parents, he just…needs time to adjust."

House nodded once, scratching the side of his face still feeling like he was a fish out of water with the entire scene before him, "And that's why he's not in school? So he can _cope_ with the loss of his parents? Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"No. When the accident happened he was beginning his third year at Columbia, but we just decided it would be better if he deferred with everything that happened."

Cuddy's thoughts seemed to have suddenly consumed her and she frowned a bit before locking eyes with him, "Why are you asking so many questions?"

House shrugged and looked away, "If you're wondering if I care- I don't. I just figure its better to get your feelings out now, before you take out your anger on me later- with clinic duty."

She still looked suspicious, but a smile was slowly creeping on her face, "What's up with you House? You've been- different lately."

He was nervous and it was new, it was unfamiliar- there weren't many things that made Gregory House nervous, but it seemed that Cuddy had become one of them.

Finally he pretended to laugh, "Ok you caught me. I'm just trying to earn brownie points so I don't have to write those reviews."

"Right."

"What else would it be?"

Cuddy raised an eyebrow, "Do you really want me to say what I'm thinking right now?"

"If you're going to suggest that I have romantic feelings for you, you'd be wasting your breath. If twenty years has proven _anything_- it's that you're not my type", he scoffed making his way out of the kitchen with Cuddy slowly trailing behind him.

Cuddy clicked her jaw to the side, "Actually its been seventeen years. And I was only going to say that you wanted to sleep with me. But thanks for clearing up your feelings- that helps."

He smiled softly at her and bit his lip for a second before his eyes set on a black grand piano that was taking up space in her office, "When did you get this?"

"Its not mine, it belongs to Ryan."

He eyed it, then her and she nodded as he slipped on to the bench and ran his fingers along the keys.

"I forgot you played."

"How could you forget? Or don't you remember how I wooed you out in California…at the Hilton?" House wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at her.

"You did not woo me House. I was just impressed that you knew how to play-"

"So you admit that _you_ wanted to get into my pants that night."

As Cuddy sat down next to him on the bench she sheepishly smiled and rolled her eyes, "Fine- so maybe I did seduce you a little."

House scoffed, "You planned it."

"I did not. I had no idea that you'd be at that conference-"

"Oh come on- it was an Infectious Disease conference, and I'd told you about it. You are not innocent Lisa Cuddy", He gave her a knowing look as he began to play an all too familiar song that he knew she'd pick up on.

"Fine ok, so maybe I had a tiny crush on you- a tiny one but you were the one that played this song. What girl wouldn't get all worked up by a guy who's playing 'Take my Breath Away' on the piano?"

"It was playing over us on the speakers- I was merely playing along to it", he defended himself shamefully.

Cuddy turned over to him and House could tell she was smirking out of the corner of his eye, "What?"

"I'm just amused that you really think I liked you that much. What are you supposed to be dressed up as anyway?"

House smiled widely and let out a breath of air then turned over to her, "Guess."

She shrugged, which mildly disappointed him. He was dressed in the exact outfit he had worn seventeen years ago, when they'd spent the night at the rundown motel next to the bar on the side of the road, in Grand Rapids. House donned the same black leather jacket, plaid red scarf, black Wayfarers and even the same beat-up boots he'd had on. The only difference was of course his cane, though there wasn't much he could do about that.

Cuddy screwed up her eyebrows together in a sincere attempt to figure out what he was, but ended up just shrugging her shoulders, "I have no clue."

"I'm me, circa 1987 Halloween."

The realization was becoming apparent on Cuddy's face and she'd opened her mouth to say something when a livid Emily came running up to her, "The clown gave a princess crown to Riley!"

Cuddy who'd been caught off guard by the little girl looked from House to her, "Well isn't it nice to share?"

"But my mom would always make me the princess", she whined pulling on Cuddy's hand.

"Well I can't force him to give it to you. But I'm sure Dr House would _love_ to play hide and seek with you", Cooed Cuddy with a smile to Emily.

Emily's eyes popped wide open and she turned to look at him even more excited than she'd been before, "This is going to be so much fun."

"Oh no. No, no, no. I don't play", He shook his head.

"House- come on, you're the one that wanted to come to her party."

"If you don't play, Lisa won't play with you", Emily said crossing her arms.

House frowned, "What do you mean kid?"

The little girl rolled her eyes in a classic Cuddy way, "You like Lisa, but she won't play with you if you don't play with me."

House's silence was more than enough of an answer for the little girl, who wiggled her eyebrows at him.

House winced and rubbed his leg, "See I would play kid, but my leg hurts."

Cuddy rolled her eyes and went to pick up the ringing home phone.

Emily still looked at House very pensive, "Ok. I'll let you off this time, but only because your leg hurts. Next time you're playing."

Clearly the bossiness ran on Cuddy's dad's side of the family because everyone he'd encountered from her family was just as domineering as the next.

After a few seconds, the little girl walked away and Cuddy walked back into the office with a crestfallen expression.

House's smile quickly evaporated and he frowned, "What happened? Is it the hospital?"

She shook her head rubbing her temples and letting out a breath, "No. That was the police station, they have Ryan and some of his friends down there. They arrested them after they attempted to buy pot off a cop."

TBC…

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><p><strong><em>Next Part Preview:<em>**

**_December 1987…_**

_"__Princeton huh? That's funny."_

_Lisa looked over at Greg who'd been playing with his pen all through the class, "Why is that funny? You've never met my mother- holiday break is going to be torture."_

_He shrugged, "It's just funny that I'm headed to New Jersey too, Atlantic City to be exact. Crandall and I are visiting his cousin Stacy."_

_"__Really?"_

_As Professor Davis dismissed their class for winter break, Greg stood up and picked up his things and stalled for a second, "If you get bored maybe you can meet up with us."_

_Lisa swallowed, at his invitation. She felt a little silly that still after so much time, he could make her feel so nervous with a simple invitation, "Yeah- maybe."_


	7. Christmas at the Cuddys'

**A/N: I decided it would make more sense to separate this into two chapters for the sake of the storyline, so there will be two parts for the past and then the next two afterwards will probably be the present. Maybe? We'll see. Anywho, enjoy! and please share your thoughts!**

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><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part VII

_Christmas at The Cuddys'_

_Previously:_

_After a few seconds, the little girl walked away and Cuddy walked back into the office with a crestfallen expression. _

_House's smile quickly evaporated and he frowned, "What happened? Is it the hospital?"_

_She shook her head rubbing her temples and letting out a breath, "No. That was the police station, they have Ryan and some of his friends down there. They arrested them after they attempted to buy pot off a cop."..._

xxxoxxxo

He couldn't help it, House laughed but quickly regretted it, as Cuddy playfully slapped his arm, "Its not funny House. You were right, I'm not ready to be the parent of a teenager. This is a nightmare."

"Hey its normal for a teenager to experiment with drugs. I think you'd have more to worry about if he wasn't acting out", He tried consoling her.

"No. You don't understand- it's more complicated", she whispered with the shake of her head.

House breathed in deeply and shrugged his shoulders, "Well you're not innocent-"

"Do _not_ bring up that disastrous Christmas break- that was all your doing", she warned him searching for her keys.

He couldn't help at let a tiny smile make its way to his lips, "Yes, I was talking about Christmas- but I also meant what happened a few times after that…"

Cuddy stopped looking for her things and turned to look at him, "Ok. One, granted I did _experiment, _but it was only because you peer pressured me into it and two, we were young!"

"He's young."

"I mean we were in college-"

"Isn't he in college?"

"He's sixteen!" she exclaimed.

House frowned, "Wait, I thought he was in college? He's sixteen and in college? I'm confused."

"You're changing the subject- of course I should be mad that he's doing drugs."

He wasn't sure what had gotten into him, it wasn't like he even knew the kid- but he guessed it was Cuddy's hypocrisy that was annoying, "I'm just saying- don't be so quick to judge- you did plenty yourself."

"Because of you. I would have never done anything if you hadn't been in my life."

There was a slight sting in her words, and when she looked up at him Cuddy knew she'd screwed up and opened her mouth to say something else but he beat her to it.

"I'm just saying that you shouldn't make it a bigger deal that it is- he'll probably just rebel more, its the teenager thing to do", he shrugged.

It didn't seem to work though, because Cuddy still held an expression of terror on her face as she put on her coat and grabbed her keys.

And when she started heading towards the front door, House called after her, "Uh where do you think you're going?"

"To pick up Ryan, where else?" She muttered angrily.

House nodded, "No I get that, I just didn't know you had so much trust in that magician to take care of the other kids in your home."

"I'm not leaving him alone- you'll be here", she said opening the door.

His face dropped and he let out a scoff, "The hell I will-"

It was too late, Cuddy had closed the door behind her, leaving House in her house full of children.…

The Past

_December 18th, 1987_

_Julia, _

_I know I'll see you tomorrow, but I couldn't help myself from having an excuse to pour my depressed thoughts out. Where should I even start? By saying that I'm disheartened? And five seconds later I'm happy? I don't know. _

_I know that by now you're tired of me talking about Greg, but I just don't how to stop thinking about him. I can't get him out of my head. I guess it doesn't help that I see him almost every day now, by pretending I need help in endocrinology. He's as nice as you could ask from an overly genius guy, but I guess I'm just depressed that we've entered that friend zone. He treats me almost exactly the same as Dylan Crandall (his friend) except for inappropriate comments about my ass or breasts. _

_Maybe I wouldn't be so depressed that we're friends if it wasn't for the fact that this past weekend we both went to the same party but I saw him making out with some blond bimbo and leave with her. Maybe that's just it, maybe he's attracted to brainless barbie doll looking girls…he's just like every other guy. Is it sad that I actually thought he was a little deeper than that?_

_I'm looking forward to brat pack movies and comfort food. _

_-Lisa_

_December 18th, 1987_

_Later that day_

**_"_**Are you doing anything this Christmas?" Greg asked in a whisper as Professor Davis passed back their midterm exams. Lisa was nervously awaiting hers, hoping it wouldn't be a perfect score- after all she had a cover to keep up.

Greg thought she was hopeless at endocrinology, and she didn't want to disappoint. However at the same time, it went against her nature to do bad in school, so when she'd taken the midterm she had forgotten to purposely answer some of the questions incorrectly.

Professor Davis was still about ten rows away from them, when Lisa turned to Greg, "Uh Christmas? just hanging out with my family I guess."

"Where do they live?"

Lisa's eyes were on Professor Davis as he was now only eight rows away, "Um-what?"

"Where is _tú casa_?"

"Princeton", she murmured as he approached and felt her heartbeat rising at the anticipation of what grade would be written on her midterm. Lisa wasn't sure what would make her feel better at that point, if she got an A or if she'd flunked it.

"Princeton huh? That's funny."

She looked over at Greg who'd been playing with his pen all through the class, "Why is that funny? You've never met my mother- holiday break is going to be torture. And she'll ask me if I've met a jewish boy yet who's swept me off my feet, then when I tell her no, she'll list twenty reasons of why I haven't met my soulmate…sometimes I feel like she thinks I'm a lesbian."

"There is no way you could be a lesbian", he said absentmindedly twirling his pencil.

She looked over at him now with her full attention and curiously smiled, "I know that, but why do you think so?"

He shrugged, "I have my reasons…Anyway it sounds like you'll have a blast…but what I meant was that I'm headed to New Jersey too, Atlantic City to be exact. Crandall and I are visiting his cousin Stacy."

"Really?"

Old Professor Davis extended his hand which held her exam, to Lisa- but as she put out her hand to get it- Greg grabbed it first and whistled, He looked over to her and half smirked, "Looks like you're not getting rid of me anytime soon."

Lisa swallowed as he handed her midterm over- she'd gotten a B minus. It was perfect and was surprised she was so ok with it and not going into convulsions by the low grade. After Davis handed Greg his paper she looked at him, "What did you get?"

Greg held up his paper and showed her- it was an A plus. He smiled cockily and shrugged, "I blame Davis, I think he's sexist."

She laughed but was distracted by Professor Davis announcing what the other winter break reading assignment as he dismissed their class for winter break, Greg stood up and picked up his things and stalled for a second, "If you get bored maybe you can meet up with us."

"What?" she frowned putting on her white scarf.

Greg pulled on one side of it as he saw that it was crooked and shrugged his shoulders at her, "In Jersey. Maybe if you get tired of your fambam you can join us in Atlantic City- we're going to have _tons_ of fun."

Lisa swallowed, at his invitation. She felt a little silly that still after so much time, he could make her feel so nervous with a simple invitation, "Yeah- maybe", she took a moment and thought about something- suddenly deciding to take a leap of faith, "Or- maybe you could stop by- if you want some Chanukah dinner?"

Greg looked at her strangely as he put on his jacket, "What?"

"Dinner or-lunch? You'll be in New Jersey", she spoke fast and struggled to find the right words then took a moment to write her address on a random piece of paper, "Come by if you get tired of Dylan."

When she handed it to him, he smiled at her one last time while nodding and walked away.

xxxoxxxo

_December 24th, 1987_

"So Lisa, any boy in college catch your eye yet?" Her aunt Rosemary asked her as they washed the dishes together.

Out of all her aunts and uncles, Rosemary- who was her father's sister and only four years older than her, was who was the closest to. And even though nothing had happened with Greg or seemed even close to happening, she couldn't help at let a tiny smirk grow on her face.

"Oh now you have to tell me", Rosemary pushed as Lisa handed her a plate to dry.

She sighed and shook her head, "It's nothing. There's just this guy-"

"_Dear Julia…His name is Greg…Gregory House. Have you ever heard a more beautiful name in your entire life? My skin prickles at the thought of him-_I think that was what she said in the, oh- third letter about him?_" _Julia had just walked into the kitchen and overheard what they were talking about.

Rosemary smiled widely and turned to Lisa, "Gregory House, huh? sounds like a name fit for a grandpa."

"That's what I said!" exclaimed her younger sister as she helped put away the dishes that their aunt dried.

Lisa rolled her eyes and shook her head, feeling her cheeks getting warm, "It's nothing."

"Yeah right. She's written me like fifty letters all about this Greg House. She doesn't even eat right because she's so obsessed with him- she's so obsessed with him that she's stalking his class-"

"Julia! That's enough", Lisa scolded her sixteen-year-old sister.

"What's enough?" Arlene Cuddy- her mother asked with a straight face as she walked into the kitchen holding an empty silver platter.

Rosemary looked from Lisa to Julia and then settled on their mother, "They were just getting tired of me going on about married life. But Jason is just so amazing-"

"Good. Maybe you can knock some sense into this one, the way she's headed, she'll probably end up alone", their mother said nodding towards Lisa as she filled the plate.

Lisa crossed her arms, "Mom."

"What? I just came for more cheese", Arlene shrugged while she filled the platter and walked back out.

xxxoxxxo

_Later that evening_

Lisa had spent most of the rest of the day catering to her mom's extended family, who'd all gathered together to celebrate Christmas eve.

Usually it had always gone on without a hitch, but for some reason this year had been an interesting get together, as it had been the first year without her dad- who had usually played the buffer between her mom and her crazy grandmother.

Julia was still young and ill-equipped for the job of peacemaker, so she'd ended up having to fill the role. If it hadn't been for Rosemary, to help her keep them apart, she wasn't sure how the rest of the night would have gone.

Lisa's mother had always been a difficult person to get along with, even she usually had problems communicating with her mother. But somehow her father who'd been the most understanding, sweetest man in the world- and his sister, had the ability to get Arlene to come to her senses.

And thankfully Rosemary and her new husband had decided to spend the night there, so they'd spend Christmas day with them too. With them there she'd almost considered leaving and driving all the way to Atlantic City and taking up Greg's offer. After all, it sounded ten times better than dealing with her problematic family. But in the end, she'd decided that she couldn't do that to Julia.

She looked over at her new 'digital' clock she'd gotten from one of her uncles on her mom side- it was almost 2am yet, she wasn't any closer to falling asleep and attributed all to her body still being so tense after all the arguing that day.

She turned over in her bed and hoping maybe a change in how she was laying would help lull her to sleep but to no avail.

Instead her head snapped up when she heard rattling on her bedroom window- she didn't see anything. Lisa closed her eyes again, and rested her head comfortably on her pillow, then heard the incessant clattering again.

Her eyes scanned the window, and she squinted them trying to see what was causing the noise, when she saw the outline of a shadow. Lisa's heart began to pound at her chest, as her hand went for the digital clock- the only heavy thing she could find to defend herself from whoever was at her window.

"_Lisa",_ the shadow whispered from the window.

She frowned, realizing she recognized the voice, and quickly got up from her bed to the window.

When she moved the curtain, she saw Greg standing outside her window shivering in his thin jacket- she immediately pulled the window up, "What are you doing here?"

He tried cracking a smile at her through his chattering teeth, and slurred as he spoke, "You invited me, remember?"

She grabbed his arm and pulled him in through the window- as he landed and giggled she could see he was clearly drunk, "So you show up in the middle of the night? Wasted?"

"Merry Christmas to you too", he slurred, making his way from her floor to her bed.

Lisa clicked her jaw to the side, pulled down her window and put her hand to his freezing cheek, "So I'm guessing Atlantic City didn't work out?"

She helped him take his moist jacket off and pulled a blanket from the foot of her bed to wrap it around his quivering shoulders.

"He called when I was six shots in to the night to say that he decided to go see his parents out in California after all."

There was a very subtle note of sadness in the way he'd say it, and it made Lisa feel sad for him, "Why didn't you go home for the holidays? To your parents?"

"They're dead", he said it nonchalantly as he let his back fall against her mattress.

Lisa brought a hand to her mouth, "Oh god, I'm so so-"

He started giggling, "You're so gullible. They're not dead- just boring."

She rolled her eyes and pushed him over to lay down too, "Well you're sweet."

Greg kicked off his shoes and clumsily took off his pants, "My mom always says I'm perfect too."

"How did you even know which window was mine?" she asked helping him get under the covers, so that he'd warm up from the thirty-degrees weather.

He shrugged and yawned, "I didn't, I just guessed."

Lisa watched as he closed his eyes, and even snuggled close to her as he drifted into to sleep.

xxxoxxxo

The first thing that she was aware of when Lisa woke up on Christmas was the sound of laughter. It wasn't just any laughter either, but Greg's- she snapped her eyes open and turned over to see that in fact he had already gotten up.

And terror ran through her, realizing that he was talking to her family. How would she explain that he was there? That he'd slept over, and that they were in some strange limbo of friendship? Or none friendship? Lisa wasn't even sure what they were…acquaintances?

She quickly got up, only pausing to put on her slippers and robe as she made her way into the kitchen, where Greg was busy flipping pancakes as all the Cuddy girls watched in awe.

Greg looked up from the pan as she walked in and smiled. He took a moment to walk over to her and give her a light kiss on the lips, "Good morning babe."

Lisa stopped in her tracks and frowned from him to her family, "Good morning?"

"When were you going to tell us about Greg?" asked her mother.

She blinked a couple times and thought carefully about what to say next, "I-"

"You know how careful Lisa is, she wanted to make sure I was in it for the long run before telling anyone about us. She wouldn't even let me tell my parents", He scoffed as he went back to flip the macadamia nut pancakes he was making.

"How did you two meet?" asked Rosemary, with her head resting on the palm of her hand and wiggling her eyebrows at Lisa, who sat down in the empty stool next to her.

For some reason she was stuck, she couldn't get words out of her mouth.

"Oh let me tell the story", Greg said out loud before she could even begin.

All the Cuddy women turned to him, eagerly awaiting to hear their fuax-lovestory, "As we all know Lisa is an overachiever, and booked her classes back-to- back. She had been running from her sociology class to ours and since she got there so late the only seat available was the one next to mine. Needless to say it was love at first sight- for me. For Lisa it took a little more wooing on my behalf to convince her to go out at all with me."

Arlene Cuddy sighed as she looked at Greg, but Rosemary and Julia who knew the actual story looked a little more amused, "He's also jewish mom."

Greg blinked repeatedly and was only thrown off for a second before smiling widely at Lisa, "Should we tell her?"

Lisa frowned, "Tell her what?"

Greg grabbed her hand, "That we're eng-"

"Excuse us for a moment", Lisa said pulling him by the hand and walking away until they were in the confines of her bedroom.

It was once she'd closed and locked her door, that she turned to him and pushed his chest, "What the hell are you doing?"

He frowned, "I was just playing."

She laughed bitterly, "I admit, at first it was amusing but telling my mom that we're engaged is ridiculous."

Greg bit his lip and shrugged his shoulders, "I thought its what you wanted? To get your mom off your back? I was just trying to help a sister out."

"Well what's going to happen genius, when she realizes you're not even my boyfriend? That we're barely even friends?"

He rolled his eyes, "You're a killjoy."

"Because I don't want to deceit my mother?"

"You're so vanilla. This is exactly why we aren't dating in real life", he muttered sitting on her bed and looking at her.

Lisa's mouth dropped, "I am _not_ vanilla."

"You are the definition of vanilla. God forbid you just decide to have fun."

"There's a difference between having fun and being- reckless. You push yourself to the limit and don't care if you become an addict or kill yourself with drugs." Lisa shrugged her shoulders.

Greg rolled his eyes and took a deep breath, "Why can't you get over me doing coke? It wasn't even a big deal."

"See. How isn't that a big deal to you? Have you not been listening to what drugs are doing-"

Greg picked up a teddybear from her bed and looked at it and then her, "I bet you couldn't let loose if your life depended on it."

Lisa placed both her hands on her hips, "I can let loose. Wanna bet?"

Greg snickered and shook his head, "You really don't want to bet with me."

"I'm not afraid of you."

He raised his eyebrows, "Its going to be your funeral."

She scoffed, "So what's your grand plan to make me loose?"

Greg blinked at her choice of words and smiled, "What?"

Realizing how that must have sounded, Lisa swallowed, "That's not what I meant- You know what I mean."

"_Right_….You'll just have to see I guess", he said without much explanation as he stood up and went back out with the rest of her family.

xxxoxxxo

She'd been on pins and needles the rest of the day, wondering what it was that Greg had in store for her. She felt like at any moment he'd ask her to do something so over the top that she'd have to say no, which would just reinforce his belief in her that she was boring.

And she feared that if he saw that, that perhaps it would be the nail in the coffin of their supposed friendship. Because, truly- what was she anyway? Some girl that entertained him in endocrinology? obviously from what she'd seen at the party only a week ago, he didn't see her as some conquest or possible girlfriend material.

At the end of the day when she'd gone to the bathroom to get ready to go to bed, with Greg having gone to sleep on their living room couch, Lisa was almost sure she was out of the woods. That was, until she opened the bathroom door to reveal an awaiting Gregory House with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a deck of cards in the other.

"Ready?" he asked only loud enough for her to hear.

"For what?" Her heart was already racing with anticipation.

"Phase one."

Lisa swallowed.


	8. Atlantic City

**N/A: First and foremost thank you to those of you who have been reviewing, it is greatly appreciated. every time i receive one it just makes me want to write more! and thank you to mstimekeeper for your advice! I'm going to call this one an in-between chapter because I didn't include all the scenes I'd hoped for, and therefore those juicy ones have been pushed towards the next chapter. Sorry- ranting lol ****any who...Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part IIX

Atlantic City

There wasn't a clear memory of how she had gotten there, but somehow Lisa woke up in a hotel room the day after Christmas- Greg passed out on the floor with a blonde girl in a gold bikini laying down next to him.

She looked down and realized she had a bunch mardi gras necklaces around her neck and a gold bikini on as well. The biggest shocker, however was the stark-naked guy laying in bed next to her.

She pushed his arm that had been draped around her waist to the side and swiftly got out of the bed to lookout the window and see if in fact her suspicions were correct- they were- and they were in Atlantic City.

A few seconds after she'd gotten up, she realized it had been a mistake because her head immediately started pounding and needle pricks of pain radiated through out her head. She had just enough time to make it to a near by wastebasket, where she felt all her insides coming out.

It was after a few minutes of relentless puke just coming out of her mouth, that she heard him yawn behind her, "Good Morning sunshine."

Lisa kept her head over the trash bin, groaned and swallowed before saying, "I think you want to kill me."

"Kill you? Not after last night, I was wrong about you _partypants. _You do know how to have fun after all."

A million questions were burning through her head, but she prioritized, "Whoever they are- can you kick them out?"

"You mean your husband and my new stripper-girlfriend? Well that would be a little mean", He said sadly.

Lisa finally looked up at Greg who seemed not to be affected at all, and looked quite chipper, "What do you mean husband?"

He turned to lock eyes with her, "Well…I only remember bits and pieces but I'm pretty sure you married him."

"_What_?"

Greg cracked a smile and rolled his eyes, "Ok you got me- not legally, just in the mardi gras party. You were named the mardi gras queen because you flashed the most boobs and collected the most beads."

Lisa realized as she looked down that she was starting to hyperventilate, "What are you talking about Greg?"

His eyes popped wide open and he winced, "Hearing my name come out of your mouth isn't nearly as delightful as I imagined it would sound. I envisioned more moaning."

"_Kick. Them. Out."_

"Yes mistress", He gave her a frightened expression and stood up from where he was sitting to kick out their unknown guests.

It took several minutes to get them up and going, but finally after much insisting and when the naked guy had finally put some pants on, they stumbled out of their hotel room and Greg excused himself to go to the restroom.

When it seemed like all that had been in her stomach had finally made its way out and Lisa slowly made her way to the bed that she'd woken up in.

A few minutes later Greg walked out and plopped himself right next to her, grabbing a menu off the night stand next to the bed, "So what should we order in for brunch? I'm thinking pizza."

"Ugh. How can you even think of food right now? I don't think I ever want to eat again", she mumbled, feeling her stomach start to rumble again just at the thought of food.

He flipped through the menu with a scoff, "How can I not? I'm starving. I could literally eat a zebra right now."

She ignored his comment, and instead thought back to the guy who'd been laying in bed next to her when she woke up, "I didn't do anything with that naked guy, did I?"

Greg yawned but shook his head, "Other than squish your faces together like you were looking for a boob to eat off of- no. He seemed pretty keen on getting to second base with you though…Actually- I totally thought _I_ had you in the bag last night until you friend-zoned me. I look up and suddenly you're making out with that wannabe _James Spader_ looking guy that was laying in bed with you", Greg said as he yawned and scrutinized the pizza section of the menu.

Lisa froze, "What are you talking about?"

He shrugged, "I thought the way things were going, that we'd finally 'consummate' our friendship last night, and then you went and told me I'm not your type."

"I thought you said you only remembered bits and pieces?" she pushed with an edge to her voice.

Greg scoffed and finally looked over at her, "A guy remembers being shot down when he thinks he's got it in the bag. You could have told me before that you had no interest in sleeping with me you know- I'd been working this year-long plan to nail you thing."

"What?" She was more than a little confused.

"You didn't think I actually wanted to be just friends with you, did you?"

She blinked, "I think you might still be drunk. We've only known each other for four months."

"Well yes- I also ate some shrooms in the bathroom when I went to go pee, so you look like a purple smurf right now. Wait…" Greg squinted his eyes then laughed hysterically, "Oh its you! I thought I was talking to Stacy- Crandall's cousin."

If it hadn't been because he was being so abundantly funny- she would have felt her heart crushing. But the mixture of his crazy talk and her still excruciating headache made her unable to feel the heart-shattering pain she should have felt.

Instead, Lisa took a big breath and comfortably positioned her head on the pillow next to his, "I didn't…I didn't take anything last night, right? I just drank…right?"

Greg winced his eyes attempting to remember, and eventually just shrugged his shoulders, "Probably, I don't know…No I think I definitely spiked your drink…maybe…"

"Oh god…I don't want to die."

"Calm down, you're not going to die. I mean, not right now at least. What you did do is have fun and believe me, you needed it."

Lisa shook her head and finally sat up, "I don't care if you call me vanilla or french vanilla for the rest of my life. I don't know what happened last night, but I can tell you I never want to feel like this again. I feel like I got ran over by a monster truck- repeatedly."

"I love monster trucks."

"Of course you do", she muttered falling bak against the pillow, "How old are you anyway? Five?"

"Plus twenty-one."

"Twenty-six? Really? For some reason I thought you were older."

Greg's eyes had gone glassy and he yawned dropping the menu and placing his hands behind his head, "You're mean. Do you want to do it?"

"Huh?"

He wiggled his eyebrows, "Do you want to do it?"

"Have sex with you?"

He shrugged, "I just figure we have the room, we're alone and the shrooms are making me feel all frisky."

"Uh- I think I'll pass, but thanks", she mumbled looking away from him. Having sex with a high Greg wasn't how she imagined she'd seduce him.

He shrugged and closed his eyes, "Your loss, I'm a stud."

For some reason, after the eventful morning she'd had, that comment made Lisa burst out in giggles. And not far afterwards, Greg joined in with her and cracked up too.

xxxoxxxo

_The Night Before_

It must have been after the fifth shot of whiskey when the subject of Atlantic City came up.

"What were you going to do out there with Dylan anyway?" she asked him as she took off her camisole- they were playing strip poker. Lisa was down to her jeans and bra, while somehow Greg still had on every article of clothing.

Greg shrugged, eyeing his cards, "I won a comped week at the Showtown hotel, so I figured I'd put it to good use. Plus strippers, booze, and gambling- what more could a guy ask for? But Crandall put a dent in my plans. See all those things are fun if you have a friend to do them with- but if you're all by yourself its just pathetic."

Lisa moved her cards around as he spoke, and when he went quite she looked up at him, "I've never been to Atlantic City."

"Ever?"

She shook her head, "I call", and she put in another twenty.

He raised his eyebrows and put down his cards, "I'm not surprised."

"Want to go?"

Greg smiled widely, "Right now?"

Lisa shrugged, "Why not? You still have the hotel room don't you? And you said you need a friend, so why not?"

He scoffed, "I don't think you'll find it fun."

It took her a minute, but she stood up and pulled his hand up too, "Try me."

xxxoxxxo

Lisa put a hand over her mouth as giggle threatened to come out and Greg put finger to his lips shushing her as they tiptoed out of her house.

"Do you want to get caught by your mom?" Greg asked her trying to stifle a laugh too as he closed the door behind him and they sprinted towards the cab awaiting them.

xxxoxxxo

Lisa was pretty sure she'd never seen so many naked people before.

Well- not entirely naked, but floss-thin bikinis were close enough. And everyone was so lively and shiny with body glitter all over them as they danced to a Michael Jackson song.

As she took a sip of the Cosmo that Greg handed her, Lisa suddenly couldn't help but move to the music and didn't care that he was watching her sway to it from where they sat.

"What is this place?" she asked in-between sips.

"This is a mardi gras themed hotel- where every night is mardi gras. Pretty cool huh? You kill two birds with one stone because now you'll never need to visit New Orleans."

"Yeah", she said absentmindedly as she watched beaded necklaces being flung into the air and girls dancing with bright-colored boas.

All the colors were so vibrant and she could feel the electric energy riding through the ballroom. Lisa looked over at Greg who was drinking from his glass and saw a golden glow around him from where she stood.

He looked like some Grecian god.

As she stared a him, He looked over at her and frowned, "What's up with you?"

She smiled and took a step closer to him, inhaling his scent in, "You're glowing."

"And you..are incredibly wasted."

For some reason, she had an unbelievable desire to throw her arms around his neck and pin him to the wall. And as a few seconds passed by, she realized that he knew. It would either be a disaster and he'd reject her or there was a slim chance that he wanted to kiss her back- but Lisa couldn't take that chance.

"I don't like you." When it came out, she was shocked to hear herself say it.

Greg blinked and looked genuinely surprised, "What?"

"You're not my type, is what I mean-"

"Excuse me", a guy squeezed himself between the both of them and made his way to order some drinks at the bar.

Lisa stumbled over to make space for him, and was about to fall when the nameless stranger caught her.

She looked up at the blonde haired- blue eyed guy and realized he was glowing just like Greg had been only moments earlier and that desire to kiss Greg had suddenly changed to the guy in front of her.

Before she knew it, their lips were locked.

xxxoxxxo

_The Present_

"-Somehow it all ended with Emily reading me a bedtime story while Hocus Pocus was playing on ABC Family", House finished telling an amused Wilson the story of his evening at Cuddy's party.

As he heard Wilson laughing in the background, House looked up at Wilson's ceiling from where he was laying down on his couch, "Did you know that Cuddy's sixteen year old cousin goes to Columbia?"

"I think she might have mentioned it…Don't tell me you're jealous he might be a smarter than you", he let out ironically as he continued his charting.

House rolled his eyes and popped a Vicodin pill into the air, catching it with his wide open mouth, "Of course not. He's sixteen."

"You're jealous."

"I said I'm not", he insisted.

Wilson looked up from his paperwork, and looked at him curiously with a sort of whimsical smile, "Why didn't you graduate high school early? I hate to toot your horn, but obviously you could have."

House rolled his eyes, "I have my dad to thank for that. He said it was _cheating_ and my mom was a gold medalist at avoiding arguing or confrontation so she went along with it…they thought I shouldn't take any short cuts."

Wilson made an 'oh' face and shrugged his shoulders, then went back to charting when he suddenly thought of something else, "Have you told her about the letters yet?"

"Yes."

"You're lying."

House twirled his cane in his hand and sighed, "There's no good that can come from telling her."

"You don't know that. Maybe she still feels the same way?"

House turned over and looked at him with roll of his eyes, "That's not even the point."

"Have you thought about how she'll react if she finds out from someone else? Or she realizes that she's missing them?"

He sighed, "She's not going to find out. Besides I have a cunning plan-"

"Oh really?" Wilson scoffed and looked back down at the charts in front of him when his office door opened- Emily was at the doorway.

She looked nervously at Wilson, and he smiled widely, "Hi Emily."

House turned around and tried hiding his face in one of the pillows, but she caught his eyes and her face lit up, "House!"

"Oh god", he muttered while sitting up, "Look kid, I know you think we hit it off, but there's no chemistry here. You need to understand that we can't be friends."

Emily laughed- the little girl was clearly tickled by his humor, "Lisa wants you to go to her office."

House stood up and looked at Wilson- who was amused by the little girl, "To be continued-"

"Tell her about the _you know whats_", Wilson reminded him as House walked out of the office.

"Sorry can't hear you!" He called after he'd closed the doors and Emily had taken his hand- pulling him towards the elevator.

xxxoxxxo

The Past

_February 13th_

_February 13th, 1988_

_Julia, _

_Sorry Its taken so long to get back to you, school has been a bit awful. I know mom is still upset that I left Christmas night- but I'm not going to apologize for the fiftieth time. And in response to your question about Greg and I- no nothing is going on or was going on or will ever go on. _

_I don't know how to explain how I feel. Sometimes I'm so happy that I feel like I'm going to burst because Greg is funny and nice and makes me laugh. Then he just becomes the most intolerable jerk, to the point that just saying hi becomes and argument. I go home feeling like crap and I know its irrational because we aren't even dating. And I convince myself that I won't do it anymore, that I'm not going to subject myself to be friends with someone as crummy as him, and then right after I tell myself that, its when he does something so nice or thoughtful that it nearly makes my knees buckle. _

_I just feel like the littlest thing upsets me after he's said something insensitive about how I want to be chief of staff one day or how I need to stay in to study and he says i'm the blandest girl he's ever known. On days like those I can't find a sweater or I break a pencil I just want to cry or go to sleep and never wake up anymore. _

_And I know that tomorrow is my birthday and Valentine's day but don't worry- I don't have my hopes up. Greg doesn't even know its my birthday, How sad is that? Actually I think I may just barricade myself in the library and actually do some studying. _

_the last thing I'm going to do is wait around for a guy who clearly doesn't have any intentions with me. _

_Julia, I think I may finally start getting over Greg. _

_-Lisa_

_xxxoxxxo_

Her birthday was today.

Greg knew that Lisa didn't think he knew that it was her birthday. But it had come up in conversation on Christmas when he'd been at her house and her aunt Rosemary had mentioned it.

As he walked over to her dorm, he had no plans that night on what to do or what to say to her. Mostly because romance wasn't his forte but also because he wasn't even sure that it was the right thing to lead with- so he'd just gotten her a helmet.

It was a pink helmet with a red bow on the top for his bike. It was a rational gift to give her because for the past few months that she'd been riding it with him, he'd gotten three tickets, since he'd always give her his.

But he was about thirty feet away from the entrance to her dorm, when he saw her and froze.

She was walking out with a blonde guy who'd just handed her a rose and kissed her. Lisa froze, and didn't kiss him back- for a few moments, but eventually kissed him back as well.

Greg turned around and walked away.

xxxoxxxo

"You called for me?" House announced as he pushed the glass door open to Cuddy's office.

She was taking a sip from her coffee mug when he walked in and pointed to the seat across from her desk, "Sit down."

House frowned, "Now I don't want to."

Cuddy sighed, "Sit down."

He reluctantly listened and sat down, taking out his prescription bottle in the process and plopping a couple pills into his mouth as she rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"So what is it sunshine?"

She frowned, "What did you call me?"

"Sunshine. I used to call you that all the time", he said playing with the pens on her desk.

There was something about the way she sighed, that he didn't like. House could already feel the uncomfortableness that was coming.

"I need your help."

"My help? Is this something interesting like a sexual favor?"

Cuddy rolled her eyes, "It's Ryan."

House took a deep breath and stood up, "Not interesting."

"I don't know what to do with him. As soon as I brought him home last night, he left again. I haven't seen him at all. And nothing I say makes a difference. He was never like this before with me."

House took a big breath and sat back down, massaging his forehead, "And this interests me why?"

"I need help with him, and-"

"Don't you think Wilson would be better suited for this?"

"Ryan isn't like Wilson- he's an idiotic genius like you. I need help from someone who an relate to him."

"Did you stop to think that maybe this kid of yours is acting out because his parents died? This is textbook one-oh-one."

"And I should just stand by and let him self-destruct?"

"Get him a shrink."

Cuddy rested her head on her hands and sighed at him with a look of defeat, "He's gone through five- they refuse to treat him."

House inhaled deeply, "Why isn't he in school?"

"I told you his parents-"

"You're feeding his depression by not keeping him busy. Letting him take time off to deal with the death of his parents is counterproductive. He should be in school especially if he's as smart as you think he is", He said taking a sip from her mug.

Cuddy smiled, "He'd give you a run for your money…but anyway the semester already started, its too late for him to go back. And to be honest I don't know if I even want him going to a school a state away. He's still a teenager."

"Well- if he's as smart as you say he is- which i doubt by the way, then let him hang out here. Maybe he'll want to follow in your footsteps", House said with an edge.

He could see that she was thinking over what he was saying in her head and she looked at him after a moment with a smile, "You're right. I should, shouldn't I?"

He remembered something at that point, "Do you like plays?"

Cuddy frowned, "What?"

He winced and sat up a little straight, "An idiot gave me tickets to a play. Want them?"

"Like a date?"

"Nope. You can have both- take someone you want to go with."

"Why don't you keep them?"

He shrugged, "Its a play. Guys don't go to plays unless they're trying to get some."

"So what you're saying is that you don't want any from me?" She asked curiously.

"I already got some- I've been there and done that."

"You're an ass."

House smiled and took the tickets out of his pocket, dropping them her desk as he stood up to leave, "It's sweet that I can still surprise you."

"Black Swan? You're picking me up at six."

Halfway to her door he stopped and turned around, "No, I said you could take someone else."

"I know. And I know you don't want to go, which is precisely why you're taking me."

"I'd rather work in the clinic."

She smiled, "I know- don't be late."

House sighed and rolled his eyes before he turned back around and walked out of her office without saying another word. And it was only once he'd safely made it inside the elevator to go back to his office that he let his smile creep on to his face, because his plan had worked perfectly.

Cuddy had asked him out on a date.


	9. Pink Helmet

N/a: So I made a mistake in the last chapter. The hotel that 'Lisa' and 'Greg' stayed at was actually called the showboat! I'm so sorry about the mistake. Also, thank you for all that have reviewed, thank you so much and I hope that you enjoy the chapter below. Happy Holidays everyone!

* * *

><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part IX

_Pink Helmet_

February 14th, 1987

_Her birthday was today. _

_Greg knew that Lisa didn't think he knew that it was her birthday. But it had come up in conversation on Christmas when he'd been at her house and her aunt Rosemary had mentioned it. _

_As he walked over to her dorm, he had no plans that night on what to do or what to say to her. Mostly because romance wasn't his forte but also because he wasn't even sure that it was the right thing to lead with- so he'd just gotten her a helmet. _

_It was a pink helmet with a red bow on the top for his bike. It was a rational gift to give her because for the past few months that she'd been riding it with him, he'd gotten three tickets, since he'd always give her his. _

_But he was about thirty feet away from the entrance to her dorm, when he saw her and froze. _

_She was walking out with a blonde guy who'd just handed her a rose and kissed her. Lisa froze, and didn't kiss him back- for a few moments, but eventually kissed him back as well. _

_Greg turned around and walked away._

_xxxoxxxo_

_February 14th, 1987 Morning_

Lisa loathed her history class with a passion. Well- more accurately her History _Professor_. She was an uptight woman who had never given anyone an A and got fun out of failing students because she thought herself superior to everyone else. Which was why in a short summary, she hated her history class. Add to the fact that she was working on her history assignment on her birthday- it was pretty torturous.

There was nothing appealing about writing a comparison essay between Thomas Paine and Niccolò Machiavelli. Actually, she had fallen asleep a few times as she attempted to read "The Prince" while looking for good quotes.

The only highlight of her day had been the cupcake that her roommate Trish had brought her from a bakery not far off the campus. And even then, she'd felt guilty about eating it, but what was another five hundred calories? If she was merely sitting down doing nothing?

As she skimmed through the essay by Thomas Paine, 'Common Sense', there was a knock at her door and she sighed, closing her book with a thud, and got up to see who it was.

It was her childhood best friend and ex-boyfriend, Atticus Beaumont.

Lisa rolled her eyes and shook her head, muttering, "What are you doing here?"

He smiled nervously at her, "I know you're still upset…but its your birthday and we've known each other since we were kids Lisa. I had to come and wish you happy birthday."

It was so hard for her to be upset at him, and he was right, they had grown up together and would probably be friends forever. But what still upset her about their breakup, wasn't even their breakup, it was that he'd deceived her for years.

"Well thanks, for the birthday wish anyway", she mumbled crossing her arms, "Why are you really here though?"

He bit his lip, "I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend."

Lisa scoffed while dropping her arms, "How can you even-"

"My parents are in town and they don't know I'm dating Trevor. They think I'm still straight and if they don't see me with you on Valentine's-which is also your birthday, well- You know how my dad is."

Trevor, Atticus' boyfriend was how she'd found out that her high school sweetheart was gay. The day after graduation, there had been a huge house party that they'd both gone to separately. She'd found Atticus making out with Trevor in one of the bedrooms as she'd attempted to look for a bathroom. As much as she'd been angry at him, she found that she hadn't been heartbroken.

Lisa placed a hand on her hip, "What are you going to tell them when I get married? Or when they realize you haven't had a girlfriend for years? Eventually you'll have to tell them that you're gay."

"Yeah, sure let me tell my Jewish parents that their only son is gay. They'll be thrilled, don't you think?" He asked her sarcastically.

"It's the 80's Atticus. Times are changing our parents aren't first generations from the old country, with traditional views on everything. Maybe you're underestimating how open they'll be about it."

He stared at her silently for a moment before speaking, "Lisa, do you not remember when we were five? And we were playing with your ballet tutus on? Don't you remember what my dad said?"

She bit her lip attempting to suppress a laugh, "No."

But Atticus rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him as he started walking towards her room, "Yes you do. He said if he ever caught me playing a ballerina again that he'd send me off to military school. Can you imagine that? Me- at military school?"

She giggled going through her drawers and trying to find a top, "I did actually give it thought a few times- you would have died the first day. I know how you like your beauty sleep."

Atticus stood against her doorframe with his arms crossed and gave her a suggestive look, "You know I still can't believe that you- my best friend- didn't figure out I was gay when we were growing up."

"You're right. The amount of moisturizer you use should've been a dead giveaway."

As she was taking off her jeans in front of him to change, Atticus stood up straight, "So you'll go to lunch with me and my parents?"

She paused for a second after she'd grabbed a coat from her closet and looked at herself in the mirror, "Yes. Because as much as I should still hate you for taking my virginity, I need a friend too."

He smiled sweetly at her, handing her a necklace, "See, I knew you missed me."

"Do you think we'll be able to fake it?" He asked her as they were about to walk outside into the cold winter weather.

They both stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned to look at each other. Lisa bit her lip and scrunched up her nose, before going in for a kiss. After a few seconds of extremely awkward kissing, she pulled away from him and heaved a sigh, "Let's hope their sight is going."

xxxoxxxo

_The Present_

That Friday afternoon, House looked at the digital clock on his cars' console, it was five-o-one. He smirked, getting satisfaction out of being a minute late to pick her up. There was an inane joy in getting her riled up, and seeing her get flustered at his deliberate need to defy her.

As he was about to get out of the car, his phone began ringing and he looked at the caller ID rolling his eyes, and dropping his phone onto one of the cup carriers, before getting out.

Not long after that, he swiftly made his way up to the front of her door, where by mostly likely the sound of his cane, Cuddy opened the door with a disgruntled look, "Let's go."

He could hear a male-teenage voice yelling after her inside, as he followed her down the steps to open the passenger door for her.

House lamely tried apologizing, "Sorry about being late-"

But as he began to speak, Cuddy grabbed the door and slammed it shut, not giving him much of a chance to even finish his sentence.

He quickly- or as fast as one with a cane could- made his way to the other side and and got into his car again, only to see her wiping away a tear. House instantly froze and looked away from her.

"Start the car and lets go", she ordered.

She didn't have to tell him twice. But it took a moment to successfully get his key into the ignition before they were off and House spoke up, "You- uh, ok?"

Cuddy sighed deeply and massaged her temple before shrugging her shoulders, "I don't know…Ryan asked to go live with Julia."

"That's good. That kid's a nightmare", He scoffed while his eyes were on the road. However, as soon as he'd said that, he noticed Cuddy turn over to look at him out of his peripheral view.

"Of course its not good news. Julia doesn't know the first thing about him and I told you she already has three girls."

House licked his lips, "So- if she has three kids, that means she has experience. You should let her take your tortured teenager."

Cuddy shook her head, "I chose to take on the responsibility- is that your phone ringing?"

She went to pick it up, but he was too fast for her, and hit the power button, then placed it on the side door-away from her reach, "Its just the ducklings."

"Then shouldn't you get it? What if something happened to your patient?"

He rolled his eyes, "See this shows how much attention you've been paying to me- I actually don't have one at the moment. They're probably trying to convince me to take one on. _Anyway,_ you're evading- If the kid wants to go, you should let him go. Besides there's a reason you never had kids- you weren't meant to."

Cuddy scoffed, "I was meant to be a mother."

"No you weren't", he sarcastically scoffed back at her.

By this point, Cuddy had crossed her arms very reminiscent of a five-year-old and frowned, "I was meant to and he's not going."

They'd been arguing back and forth so heatedly that House had nearly ran a light that had just turned red and instead hit his breaks all the way, causing the car to stop abruptly. When they were at a stand still, he finally took a huge breath of air and rolled his eyes, annoyed at the fact that he was even having that argument with her, "Don't you think that if your kid has a chance at being happy by moving with your sister, you should let him do it? Besides, that way you only have one to worry about and practice with. If you're so bent on having a kid."

Cuddy dropped her arms, and shook her head, "I don't care about Emily!"

About three seconds after she'd said it, she realized what had just come out of her mouth and she looked up at him with a swallow, "I didn't mean that."

"Sure you didn't", he mumbled back, unexpectedly intrigued by Cuddy's indifference to the toddler. But he weighed that curiosity against actually getting somewhere romantically with her that night and decided on the latter for the moment being. He swallowed and cleared his throat, "All this talk about your kids is going to kill the mood."

Cuddy frowned, "What mood?"

House blinked and turned his head back to the road as the light turned green again, "Nothing."

xxxoxxxo

There was a look of complete confusion on Cuddy's face, when House pulled up his car to the valet section at the Showboat hotel in Atlantic City. She'd fallen asleep for a majority of the ride and had only woken up when his car had stopped in front of the familiar hotel.

The young brunette guy working the valet, opened the door for Cuddy, but she stopped and looked over at House, "Why are we at the Showboat? The show is at Caesar's palace."

"I know", he agreed getting out of the car and throwing his keys to the valet to catch. He grabbed his cane and joined Cuddy who had was already up on the curb.

"Then why are we here?"

House started making his way inside the resort, with Cuddy speeding up to keep up with his wide stride towards the check-in counter, "Huh- doesn't it look familiar? I could have sworn I've been here before."

"House-"

"Something about this place makes me think of gold bikinis…" He mumbled looking around as he stood in line at the concierge.

As he turned his eyes to her, Cuddy's nose flared a little and she looked at him, her mouth in a straight line, only showing clear enervation on her face.

For a while she didn't say anything, which only mildly concerned him. He knew he was either in for a very disturbing argument when they got their room, or that perhaps Cuddy was simply too exhausted from dealing with kids to care about the fact that he'd made a slight change of plans to their 'date'.

And as they were taken to their suite by a bellboy- one very similar to the one they'd stayed at nearly seventeen years ago, House had his answer.

"Can I ask what we're doing here?"

He looked from Cuddy to the awaiting bellboy, who he begrudgingly gave a twenty to, and closed the door behind him before saying anything back to her.

House popped on to the bed and supported himself with his elbows as he looked up at her, feigning innocence, "I just thought we'd need a place to crash."

"What are you talking about? The play starts in an hour."

He winced and tried suppressing a smile, as he pulled something out of his back pocket and handed it to her, "I think you mean _twenty-five_ hours."

Cuddy looked down at the tickets and House watched her read them, "These say Saturday…?"

"I know."

She frowned, "But…the ones you had shown me on Tuesday, said friday. That's why I asked you to pick me up-"

He shook his head, "They said Saturday."

"Why didn't you correct me? If you knew I'd messed up on the days, why didn't you tell me?"

"I figured it was your subtle way of saying you wanted to bed me", he shrugged, patting the bed.

Cuddy blinked her eyes repeatedly, and her mouth hung open a just slightly as- House imagined- a million things ran through her exhausted-overworked mind.

Finally, she sighed and crossed her arms again, "What are you doing House?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just don't- recognize you lately."

He frowned and shrugged his shoulders with a scoff, "Well, I did get low-lights done on my hair, but when no one mentioned it I figured it wasn't noticeable."

"You know exactly what I mean. You don't think I've caught on to all those subtle references that you've been dropping? Calling me sunshine? Bringing up those times you slipped me god knows what drugs and fed me hash brownies? Dressing up in what you were wearing when we spent halloween together up in Grand Rapids- _this hotel_. What is it that you want?"

She'd taken the bait. House breathed in slowly and shrugged, "We have a past. I can't make references to it?"

Cuddy raised an eyebrow, "Not without an agenda."

He frowned, "It hurts that you think I don't _just_ want to be a friend."

Cuddy shook her head, "We weren't ever friends."

That had stung- even that he couldn't fake, "Really? Never?"

He could see her contemplating her answer and fighting herself internally as she attempted to keep at bay what she was really thinking, "Does it matter? It was a long time ago."

"But you're saying we've never truly been friends."

"Fine! Maybe we were friends for a second. Maybe I thought you were my friend…but- I don't think I was ever yours House."

He stayed quiet, she wasn't finished yet. And even if she was, he wasn't sure what to say back.

After the dozens of letters he'd read, House realized she'd never honed in on what she'd meant to him. And even at the age of twenty-six, he knew he hadn't realized himself that Lisa Cuddy had been much more than some girl in his class. Maybe the word love was too premature, and perhaps at first she'd seemed like any other freshman, but as time had passed, he'd realized that she was sort of remarkable in her own average way.

Part of that marvel had been how she hadn't thrown herself at him the first time she'd woken up at his apartment. Or how she'd persistently nagged him about his lack- of- conscious, when it came to the decisions he made. She hadn't been just any other girl trying to get in his pants- or so he'd thought.

He scoffed at the irony of it all. Because she had been trying to get him in bed from the first moment she'd met him.

After a while of listless silence, he sat up straight and cleared his throat as he looked at the ground, "I went to see you on your birthday."

"What?" she asked irritably.

House fiddled with his fingers a little- it was always uncomfortable when it came to letting out his pesky feelings. It left him feeling completely open, "The day you turned nineteen- in Michigan, I was outside your dorm."

He paused for a second letting out a tiny laugh with small smile- though he still refused to look up at her at all, "I'd bought you this stupid pink helmet so you could ride on my bike and I put this bow on top of it….I was really nervous for no reason at all, and there I was- with no expectations mind you- walking up to your dorm and…you were kissing another guy. Granted I should have known- you did tell me when we were here that you had no interest in me, but I'd foolishly thought you were bluffing. Then when I saw you with that guy I just- left."

Finally he looked up, and was greeted by Cuddy's confused expression, "You bought me a pink helmet?"

"That's all you heard in that entire story? That I bought you a pink helmet?"

"I can't believe you bought me a helmet", Cuddy mumbled while looking at him in awe.

House rolled his eyes, "I said it was stupid-"

"Its-sweet", she struggled.

"Just forget it-"

However, even before he could finish his sentence, Cuddy began laughing and placed a hand over her mouth.

"That's the last time I tell you anything", he muttered standing up and making his way to the hotel door. He couldn't believe he'd said that to her.

"House- wait", she asked with her giggling subsiding, as she held on to his arm to stop him from leaving.

He turned back at her, but refused to look down at her, "What?"

She had a way about her though, it was like she controlled his eyes with a gravitational pull, "That guy- the one you saw me kiss. He was my ex-boyfriend from high school, Atticus. Remember how I told you I'd found out my ex was _gay_, and that the way I found out he was gay was by accidentally catching him in the act. Well that was him- Atticus."

"So you were kissing him, because he was gay?"

She sighed and motioned with her hand, "We were practicing because we were going to go have lunch with his parents, and he hadn't come out to them yet."

"Oh. Well that makes complete sense."

Cuddy screwed her eyebrows together and smiled up at him- inching a bit closer to his chest, "Did you…like me House?…Do you like me now?"

He swallowed and shrugged, "Well I don't _not_ like you."

"And you never told me?"

House licked his lips and rolled his eyes, "I didn't like you that much- enough to tell you."

Cuddy smiled and let out a sigh, "You're romantic."

He just looked at her. Their bodies were close, her face was only inches away and he could tell she wanted it too. If there was ever a more clearer moment to kiss her, it was then. But something held him back, and House found that he couldn't move.

It didn't matter though, because just like that- in one second, Cuddy's lips met his. And all that followed were hands meeting flesh, starting at his neck and somehow making their way down until her small soft hands were under his shirt, lightly making their way across his stomach.

On instinct, House recoiled from her touch and he could feel her laugh in-between their kissing, "I forgot how ticklish you are."

"Shut-up", he said pulling at her dress- and just as she was about to take it off, Cuddy's phone began to ring.

Immediately, House shook his head, "Don't get it."

"It could be important", she tried arguing as his lips had made their way to her collarbone- something he knew was her weakness.

"The hospital won't burn down in the next one to five hours", he said in-between their ministrations on her chest.

He could sense her giving in, in the way she let a breath out, but from one second to the other, Cuddy began to shake her head, and pushed him away as her hand went to answer the phone and House groaned loudly- falling defeated on to the bed.

"Hello?" she answered, trying to catch her breath, "-Wilson?"

The array of emotions she showed on her face changed abruptly from confusion, to disbelief- and lastly annoyance once she stood up and looked House with daggers in her eyes.

"Thanks, I'll be sure to let him know. Bye."

He merely smiled up at her sheepishly and bit the side of his lip, "Nice talk?"

Cuddy placed both her hands on her hips, "Did you know your parents would be in town tonight?"

House scratched the back of his neck, "Uh-yeah, I think they might have mentioned they'd be in town. I told them I couldn't see them though, because I had a prior engagement."

"You hardly ever see your parents. You should have gone out with them instead", Cuddy yawned as she fell on to the bed next to him.

House scoffed, "And spend an evening with my dad telling me what I should be thankful for? No thanks. I get enough nagging from Wilson."

"Why don't you just do what everyone else does to their parents? And lie? You're definitely a savant at it."

"You know my mom reads me like a polygraph machine. Besides I don't hate her, just him."

"Why didn't you just cancel with me instead?"

"I couldn't. You invited me out."

Cuddy looked confused, "But- you gave me the tickets-"

"-And you asked me to go with you. So obviously I couldn't back out", House paused and licked his lips, "Not when my mom realized that my date was with Lisa Cuddy. You know how much she likes you."

Cuddy smiled, and then House watched as her eyebrows began to furrow a bit and she thought about something. Her eyes moved- as they scanned the room, and finally they turned and made their way back to him, "Is this what all of this was? Just an excuse for you not to have to face your parents? Nothing else?"

House half smiled, maneuvering on the bed so that he was semi-pinning her underneath him, and played with a strand of her hair, "God no. I definitely planned on getting lucky tonight."

xxxoxxxo

_February 14th, 1987 Afternoon_

"That wasn't awkward at all", Lisa said through a gritted smile as both she and Atticus waved at his parents who were driving away.

Atticus smiled at his mom and waved his hand, "Yeah."

Once the car was out of sight, he turned to her, "God I hope I don't see them again for a few years."

Lisa tilted her head, "You'll have to tell them sooner or later."

He shook his head, "I'll opt for later then…but- also, I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Shoot."

"Who was that guy you were sneaking out of your house with on Christmas?" he asked while they both walked down the sidewalk and back towards their campus.

Lisa stopped in her tracks and looked at him, "How do you even-?"

"You forget that our parents live across the street from each other. And I was also hiding behind the bushes by your front door when you both walked out drunk and got into the cab…In my defense I was going over to apologize again."

She swallowed attempting to find the right words to use, "His name is Greg, we have the same endocrinology class. I sort of invited him over for Christmas because he was going to be in the area…"

There was something odd about the fact that even though they were exes, she could still tell him about another guy- even if that other guy was nothing more than an acquaintance.

"Ah- would this be Greg as in Gregory House?"

"How do you know his name?"

Atticus scoffed as he opened the front door to a coffee shop, "Have I heard of him? He's a legend Lisa. How did you manage to nail him?"

"I didn't nail him-"

"Lisa!"

They both looked up to see a blond in a short black off the shoulder tight dress- her roommate, Trish.

"What are you doing here?" curiously- as Trish was not one for coffee shops.

She twirled a strand of her hair and smiled at Atticus, who only looked away at Lisa, "I'll be right back- I'm going to use the gentleman's room."

Trish looked back at her, "I was just picking up something before heading over to the Alpha Chi Valentine party, are you guys going?"

Lisa opened and closed her mouth a few times, "Uh- we might?"

"Lisa?" She looked up to see that Greg walking up behind Trish and loosely putting an arm around her shoulder. His eyes were sunken and the way that he seemed to move like jello told her, he'd already began his partying.

She frowned, looking from him to Trish, "What are you doing here?"

Greg blinked a couple of times, clearly unsteady on his feet, "Partying?"

She looked at his wide-open, constricted eyes, "What did you take?"

"Nothing", he said defensively playfully smacking her hands away.

Lisa stared daggers at her roommate who blushed a deep shade of red, "I guess we might? see you at the party?."

"Yes. You will", she muttered as Trish started to pull Greg's arm.

He turned back to look at her right as they were leaving out the front door, and clearly clueless to what she'd just said, "See you in class."

It was a few minutes before Atticus came back out, and when he did, Lisa looked up at him with a straight face, "We're going to a party."


	10. Brownies

**N/A: A little quicker update this time. :) This is a filler chapter, and the next one should be filled with more intrigue ;) I appreciate everyone who is reviewing, as it is fueling my creative flow. I hope you guys enjoy this part! :) BTW who is excited about watching Hugh Laurie on VEEP? TBH I've never even watched the show, but since he's going to be on it now, I guess I have to watch all three seasons that have already aired so I can watch him. Also, anyone planning on making any Gingerbread 'Houses' this holiday season? heh (stupid joke) anyway- now enjoy :)**

* * *

><p><strong>The Letters<strong>

Part X

_Brownies_

_It was a few minutes before Atticus came back out, and when he did, Lisa looked up at him with a straight face, "We're going to a party."_

xxxoxxxo

_February 14th, 1988_

Atticus scratched the back of his neck and frowned, "Yeah…I don't think I can go."

"Why not?"

"I know its your birthday- but it's also still Valentines and Trevor made dinner reservations for us-"

She sighed and put up her hand, "Ok. I get it- no need to explain further."

They both said their goodbyes after that and went their separate ways, Lisa promising to stay in touch with him and finally put her grudge aside so she could meet Trevor.

When Atticus was long gone, she sat in the coffee shop, on a stool and looked down at what she was wearing- acid washed high-waisted skinny jeans and black long-sleeved turtle neck shirt- none of which was appropriate for a sorority Valentine party.

And after what she'd seen Trish wearing with Greg's arm wrapped around her shoulders, Lisa knew she'd have to up her game. It was then that she saw a brightly lit neon sign advertising the boutique directly across the street from the coffee shop with the tinniest little black dress on display in the window. It was almost as if it was luring her to it- calling her name.

Lisa Cuddy wasn't a girl that was much into shopping- but that also didn't mean that she didn't care about how she dressed herself. Looks just came in secondary to school, always had, always would and no guy had ever influenced her differently, that is- until now.

She licked her lips and bounced of the stool with vigor as she made a decision at that moment, that Gregory House would become hers at that party.

xxxoxxxo

_The Present_

_Saturday_

_November 12th, 2005_

Birds were chirping.

The sun was shining.

And that was an odd thing since it was november- and then he realized that it was the brightly lit TV, probably airing an outdoorsy commercial.

House hadn't even opened his eyes yet, but he felt just like that one time he'd taken ten Vicodin, and had been lulled to sleep- only this feeling was better. And he was pretty sure he even had a genuine smile on his face. And it was all due to one night with Cuddy.

He took a deep breath and turned his head over to look at her slumbering figure next to his- for there was no way she could be awake after the night they'd had, "Morning sunshine."

After exhaling and stretching a little, he opened his eyes and realized why there was no response-

Cuddy was gone.

xxxoxxxo

_The Present_

_Monday_

_November 14th, 2006_

"What do you think it means? You know…that she was gone?" House had just finished explaining the elaborate plan, that he'd executed with Cuddy.

They were in line at the cafeteria, and Wilson had taken a big intake of breath as he selected a garden salad, and House placed a ruben sandwich on his tray at the same time, not even skipping a beat as he did.

"I can think of a couple obvious reasons why she'd run out on you. And you were both sober when this act was committed?" He asked again, looking over at him incredulously.

"I'm sure being high on roofies warrants soberness, right?" House licked his lips and didn't use sarcasm with his remark.

Wilson thought for a moment, "Wait, isn't that what you did to her? Eons ago?"

After wilson paid and they got to their booth, House played with Wilson's apple in his hand, frowning as he thought back, "Roofies? God no- that was some other guy-"

"Uh- actually I was referring to your one nightstand in Anaheim, that you say she initiated and how you left that morning without any note or any goodbye. Though I'm a bit curious about the roofies now…"

"That was different- I had to catch my flight back to Virginia-"

After filling his fork with salad, he pointed it at House, "Ah- but you've said it yourself, that you never gave her an explanation. Maybe she's just repaying the favor."

House scoffed and rolled his eyes jokingly, "There's no way she'd fake six orgasms just to pull that."

Wilson, who was in the middle of swallowing food, nearly choked.

"What's an orgasm?"

Both men turned to see that Emily was standing right at front of their table with both hands behind her back, curiously eyeing House's pickle that he'd taken out of his sandwich.

"An _orgasm_ is-"

Wilson kicked House and frowned at him- then cleared his throat, "He meant to say, honey- that he made six origamis- they're papers that have been folded to make a bird- or a swan-"

Emily turned away from Wilson, bored by his explanation and smiled at House, "Can I have your pickle?"

For the first time, House gladly handed his food to the little girl, as she eagerly took it right away, "Sure- but you're gross if you like pickles. This is just another reason why we can't be friends."

After Emily had swallowed what she was chewing on, she spoke up with shrugged arms, "My brother doesn't like them either and I never said I wanted to be your friend."

Wilson chuckled and House rolled his eyes.

He sighed- it was incredibly how easily he was irritated by children, "Great. Now scoot, we're having an adult conversation here."

"Lisa wants to see you." And after that she walked away, contently eating her pickle.

He scoffed, smiling over at Wilson as he got out of the booth and wiggled his eyebrows, "I'll give you the play by play later."

"Please don't-"

It was too late, House had swiftly hobbled away.

xxxoxxxo

He stood at the door of her office looking in. Cuddy was sitting in her desk chair looking over some papers, with a tiny line in-between her eyebrows- she was in deep concentration mode. It made House smile.

When he walked in without knocking, she looked up and for a moment he knew he saw a smile, that quickly evaporated away.

"I didn't know the hospital was in favor of child labor. If I'd known about that, I would have ditched my lackeys ages ago. Hiring kids to be messengers is much cheaper", he let out semi-nervous, though he doubted she'd be able to tell.

Cuddy smirked and shrugged, "It was her idea. She's taken a liking to you."

"Cuddy women seem to fancy me", he shrugged nonchalantly.

House searched for a tell-tale sign on her face, but she only looked back at him blankly. It was on purpose, and he realized it was because she knew he could read her.

"So what is it that you need sunshine? More of my services?" He looked down at his watch, "Because I still have about an hour left before I have to go back-"

"House, stop", Cuddy bit her lip and played with her pencil a little, "About what happened…"

And it was there. The lip biting. No matter what came after that, he knew it would just be a cover to what she truly desired- Him.

He doubted she knew about the whole lip-biting. It was something she'd been doing since the first time she woke up in his apartment, after she'd been drugged by some random guy at the party.

"It can't happen again", she finished, looking up at him with her armor back on.

House laughed lightly and breathed in, "Right. This is one of those times when you say no, but you really mean-"

"I'm serious. It was in the moment, and we were both nostalgic, and yes we have a history-"

"Oh come on. You're telling me you didn't want it? Ever? I'm pretty sure you were the eager one, that night in Anaheim-"

"That is exactly why nothing can happen between us."

He frowned, "Because your lust for my body is just too much? Wow- if that isn't an ego booster I don't know what-"

"Because nothing good can come of it! Nothing ever did!" She'd finally burst, and House could see her hands trembling, "You just…it just can't, ok?"

He rolled his eyes, "Don't you think you're being a little over dramatic? It was one night-"

Cuddy scoffed, "See? You have no regard for anything but yourself. People feel House. I feel- I felt. And you left me feeling used."

House tapped his cane incessantly, and licked his lip, "What did you think was going to happen? I was going to become this magical boyfriend who was going to buy you flowers and take you out to fancy romantic restaurants?"

"No. I don't know? But that boat sailed long ago, and last night was a mistake. We weren't ever meant to be anything else than what we are now", she finished.

xxxoxxxo

_February 14th, 1988_

She found them almost instantly after she entered the sorority house. It was like she had some type of magnetic pull in her eyes that could spot Greg anywhere when he was in the same room.

He was pinned up against a wall by Trish, with her obnoxiously long arms around his neck, pulling his face to hers so that their lips collided sloppily.

Lisa had a sense to simply walk up to them and pull them apart, even slap Trish once or twice for her backstabbing sister code behavior. Because her roommate knew very well of her immense crush on Gregory House, and found her wanton manners incredibly infuriating.

Instead, when she saw Trish whisper something into his ear and then grab his hand, guiding him upstairs, her envious filled chest deflated. Everyone, including herself knew what it meant when a couple walked upstairs and Greg had obviously made his decision.

And just like times before, Lisa found herself angry. Not at Greg and his girl of choice for that party, but at herself. She was upset at herself for foolishly believing that party would be any different and that she'd somehow make him finally see her.

Why couldn't he see her? And then she remembered all the times pushed him away, because she had. Lisa knew she had no one to blame but herself. But the question that stood was, why was she so afraid to let herself be taken by him? She wasn't innocent, she wasn't a virgin, she'd had boyfriends, she wasn't naive and she'd been rejected many times. So why was now so different?

It was all that and more that she was thinking of as she turned around to leave. But it was at the door that she stopped, and took a moment to breath. It was her birthday, it was valentines and just because all her romantic conquests with Greg seemed to be doomed, didn't mean she couldn't enjoy herself.

Before he entered her life, she would have been the life of the party- she would have been the one playing beer-pong or leading a boy upstairs- he had tamed her. And instead, Lisa found herself rightfully walking to the kitchen and pouring herself beer in a red solo cup.

After her first sip, she let the tenseness that had been at her chest, dissipate and forget about Greg. It was her birthday and she was determined to have fun. Which was why, when a cute guy smiled at her, she didn't hesitate to walk up to him and abruptly kiss him on the lips without a thought.

He kissed her back, and it felt wrong, no matter what she tried telling herself- but she wasn't going to let that stop her from attempting to forget about Greg. She was going to make it work.

Lisa could see the shell shock on his face when she pulled away, and felt a jolt of excitement run through her, that she hadn't felt in a long time. Finally, it felt like things were looking up- that was until she saw Trish out of the corner of her eye walking down the stairs really chummy with some other guy that wasn't Greg.

It wasn't the fact that Trish was obviously a slut that surprised her, it was that it hadn't even been five minutes and she was already back down with someone else- that part seemed odd.

Lisa didn't give much thought to the guy she'd just kissed, when she walked away and up to Trish, who was evidently surprised to see her, "Where's Greg?"

Trish rolled her eyes, "He was too wasted, and started puking- It was totally gross. So I ditched him for this hunk."

"You're such a bitch", she heard herself say.

"Yeah but I'm a good one."

There were too many errors with what her bimbo roommate had said, and instead Lisa just sighed and bolted up the stairs in search for Greg.

The first few attempts at finding him were dead ends, and with the music blasting loud enough to damage everyones eardrums, she couldn't listen out for the noise of retching, but when she finally made it to a bathroom with a guy kneeling over the toilet- she was able to breath a sigh of relief.

She closed the door to the madness behind her kneeled down on the floor next to him, placing her hand over his back, "You're an idiot."

Lisa waited to hear some sort of snide remark from him too, but when he didn't say anything back she frowned, and shook his back a little bit, "Greg?"

There was no response from him, and she pulled him off of the toilet to reveal that he was pale and his lips had lost all their color. Immediately, her heart began to race twice as fast and she shook him repeatedly, but he was unresponsive.

"Greg…Greg? Greg!"

In that moment, she frantically searched him with her eyes, fearing the worst and unable to move. It made no sense, and she realized it. She should have been half-way down the hall at that point, asking someone to call an ambulance, but instead she was stuck by his side as he slowly died and she wasn't sure why.

After a momentary freeze in her motor skills, Lisa shook him again, attempting to get any response at all. She slapped him and yelled, , but it wasn't until she hit his chest with the palm of her hand that she finally saw him give a sign of life.

Greg had very softly groaned and flickered his eyelids for a moment- but it was enough for her to be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"I think you broke my ribs", he murmured through his now shallow breathing.

Lisa stifled a laugh, and didn't care at that moment that it would be weird if she wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, or that he smelled strongly of throw up, "You stopped breathing you idiot."

She felt him move one of his arms to touch her back, and she slowly moved back up, helping sit up in the process, even though he didn't seem to like the idea all that much. Slowly, she saw that the color was coming back to his painfully white skin, and he swallowed a couple times- apparently still a little nauseas.

History had taught her that asking him what he had taken or that he was being stupid, wouldn't get her anywhere with him- if anything, that approach would make it worse. Whatever it had been, she knew the answer to his partying would be to have _fun._

And instead she simply patted his moist forehead, and moved some of his hair to the side with a sigh, "We should get you to the hospital."

Greg shook his head, "No. I'm fine."

She sighed, "Ok. Let's get you home then."

xxxoxxxo

Their walk from the cab to his upstairs loft apartment was difficult, and although there should have been no thoughts about the fact that she was holding on to him so close- Lisa couldn't help at get some satisfaction out of touching him so intimately.

The funny thing was that their was nothing sexual about where her or his hands were, it was just feeling him hold on to her with such force that sent her a kick of thrill.

There was a particular spot, where Greg tripped and giggled, somehow falling against the wall and pulling her into his chest. Lisa felt everything around her come to a halt, and focused on just the breathing between them.

Her eyes instinctively traveled up to him, up to his brighter shade of blue eyes, and could see a smile on his lips grow. Never mind the fact that he still radiated a strong scent of bile, he just looked wondrous. And there was a moment where she was pretty sure that she saw him inch his head closer down to her.

She swallowed, parting her lips just slightly awaiting the incoming of his lips crashing against hers. But instead what crashed was Greg's neighbors bike agains the railing of the stairs- startling both of them.

And just like that, the moment was over. Lisa looked away, too afraid to look back at him and what his facial expression would be. Instead, she pulled him back off the wall, and again began the walk to his door.

Once they were inside his apartment, and she'd closed the door behind her, she guided Greg to his couch, where he fell down like jello.

He closed his eyes, and she walked into his bathroom to grab his trash can, because the last thing she wanted to do was pick up more puke off the floor if he continued being sick.

After grabbing a fresh t-shirt out of his closet and a bottle of water from his fridge, she walked back and sat him up, as he eyed her irritably but cooperative while she took of his shirt.

It wasn't the first time that she'd seen him topless or even worse, but every time felt like she was seeing him for the first time, and her body reacted on its own. Lisa swallowed and she helped him place his other top on. Afterwards, he fell back down on to the couch and closed his eyes again.

"Do you need…something else?" she asked cluelessly shrugging her shoulders. Her eyes scanned his apartment and the disarray it was in. It wasn't too bad, actually compared to most guys she knew it was ok. Mainly there were piles of vinyl albums and different books just on the floor, taking up the bulk of the space.

"Brownies", he mumbled.

She frowned, "Did you just say brownies?"

He nodded, "They're inside the fridge, on a plate. I think they'll make me feel better."

"I doubt eating brownies will make-"

"Just bring them."

Lisa suppressed the desire to roll her eyes, and went to search for the brownies in his fridge, which ended up being easy as it was the only thing in there apart from a couple bottles of wine.

She grabbed the plate with plastic wrap over it and walked back to his living room, sitting on his coffee table directly in front of him, with the platter in hand.

"This is silly, I hope you know", Lisa smiled.

Greg shrugged as he took a brownie and bit into it, speaking with a full mouth, "Its the best remedy for wastedness."

She looked down at the platter full of cookies and sighed. Lisa knew better than to eat sweets at night, especially since she'd had a cupcake that morning for her birthday. But there was something appealing about the brownies and before she could change her mind, she bit into a piece as a wide cheshire cat smile grew on Greg's face.

After she swallowed the piece she'd gotten, she frowned at him, "What?"

"Its good, isn't it?"

"I guess they're all right. Not the best but not the worst", she shrugged grabbing another piece and biting into it.

When he didn't say anything back, Lisa frowned at him, "What? Do I have something on my face?"

He shook his head and averted his eyes around his apartment until he spotted something, and looked back with her with a curious smile, "Do you want to watch a movie?"

xxxoxxxo

When he'd suggested a movie, for some reason Lisa hadn't pictured him owning a horror movie like the shinning. And even though she'd watched it a dozen times before, she seemed to be jumpy at every scene- it was bizarre.

She'd somehow made it on to the couch next to Greg who had his head on her lap and was giggling at the two girls standing at the end of the corridor.

Lisa covered her eyes with her hands, so that only thing she could see were tiny lines of light coming from the screen.

He noticed, and chuckled attempting to pull her hands down, "Watch the movie, don't be a pussy."

"You're not the one that has to walk home alone", she murmured feeling her shoulders tense, but regardless, letting him pull both her hands down right when the scene where all the blood flooded the room.

Greg could see the horror on her face and smiled as he pretended to be annoyed, "If you want to be a doctor you'll have to get used to blood."

"Actually, I plan to be Dean of Medicine so really I'll be more of an administrator and won't have to get my hands dirty", after she'd said it, she frowned, "Why did I just say that?"

"Want another brownie?" he raised the plate offering it to her.

Lisa shook her head, "No. I think they're making me feel…funny. Wait- are those? Did you- did you drug me?"

He smiled widely, "You picked them up all on your own."

She stood up, holding her chest, "What did you put in them? Why does my heart feel so funny? Am I going to die?"

Greg sat up and laughed, "You would be the _one _person who gets anxiety from hash brownies. You need to loosen up Lisa."

None of what he said made her feel better and instead, she swallowed, "I think I'm going to wash my face."

She gingerly made her way to his bathroom, hoping not to hit anything and hoping that the overwhelming feeling of dread would leave her sooner than later. Her eyes stopped when they got to his sink though, because there was a small glass vile next to a needle. She bent down to pick it up and felt her heart banging against her chest, "What is this?"

Greg, who had been sitting on the couch and she could see through the reflection of the mirror realized what she'd just spotted and stood up- though uneasily, and walked over to snatch it out of her hands.

He paused and licked his lips, "Its not what you think it is."

"So its not a hypodermic needle?"

"Well, yes but I know what your thinking-"

She laughed, "So you're not shooting stuff into yourself?"

Greg rolled his eyes, "Well yes, but if you'll let me finish. What I was going to say is that, Its not what you think."

"Well what I'm thinking is that you're insane!-"

He interrupted her, "I'm part of a clinical trial and I'm testing a new delivery system to treat depression in patients who are bipolar."

Lisa blinked her eyes a couple times before speaking up again, "Are you bipolar? or depressed?"

"No. But they need a control group- obviously. Aren't you going to medical school?"

She read the label off of the tiny glass bottle, "This is probably what made you sick. Does it even make you feel less depressed?"

"I've never been depressed."

"So why even risk your health?" It was beyond her why he'd even put himself through that risk.

He grabbed the medicine out of her hands and walked away to put it up away in a high cupboard, "Just forget about that- it doesn't concern you."

Suddenly, a few memories rolled through her mind like a silent movie, of his behavior from the moment she'd met him, up until now and how it had changed drastically from one moment to the other- always taking her off guard. She looked up at him, "How long have you been doing the trial?"

"What part of it doesn't concern you, don't you get?"

"Why are you doing it?"

Greg shrugged, "Its lucrative and fun."

She stared at him in amazement, crossing her arms, "Fun is going to kill you."

"God Lisa, you're so predictable. Fun is fun, at least I'm not some shriveled up prude who doesn't do anything other than her homework", he muttered irritably.

She scoffed, "You're the one that's made me careful you _ass_. Someone needs to be the responsible one. If I don't watch over you, who will?"

"I never asked you to!" He bellowed.

They both got quiet for a moment, and Greg looked away- maybe realizing what he'd just said was a bit cruel. She wasn't sure, but when he looked back at her, his expression had softened.

He exhaled deeply, "You should leave."

Lisa blinked, "Are you kicking me out?"

He clenched his jaw and breathed evenly, "Call it what you want. I just don't see why you're here. I don't want you here."

She waited for a moment to see if it was a bluff, if maybe he didn't mean it after all. But as he stood there looking back at her unmoved, Lisa knew that maybe it would just be better if she left and let him cool down because she'd never seen him quite so shaken with her.

And even as she picked up her coat and purse, she couldn't help feeling like there was something she was missing from the puzzle, something else.

xxxoxxxo

_March 12th, 1988_

_Dear Julia, _

_I got the birthday present you sent and sorry again for not responding to the last six letters you've sent me. Its just been so…busy lately I guess you could say._

_Call me crazy, but I really thought the Less than Zero film would be different. Although Robert Downey Jr. did a great job, he's not the julian from the book. I kind of feel like I'm in Clay's shoes right now, and Greg is Julian- although that's a a completely different story. No nothing's happened other than him still being upset at me. He sits all the way in the front of our endocrinology class, can you believe that? If that isn't a dead giveaway that he's mad at me, I don't know what is. _

_On a lighter note Atticus and I are finally mending our friendship back together. I've even hung out with Trevor a few times and he seems pretty cool too. Though you'd never be able to tell he's gay, he's such a jock! But then again, I suppose I shouldn't be stereotyping people, should I? They've invited me to go to Disneyland this summer after the semester is over, want to come with? Let me know. _

_I hope things are better for you and mom. Has Rosemary finally been able to get pregnant? I'm tired of focusing on my dramatic anti-love life. I want to focus on everyone else now. _

_Love,_

_Your sis Lisa_

_March 15th, 1988_

The first thing Lisa noticed as she walked into her endocrinology class five minutes late- as usual, was that Greg was back in his usual spot.

He didn't turn to look at her, instead focused on what their professor was talking about- something to do with proteins, Lisa wasn't really sure, but it was enough to make her smile.

She sat down and couldn't help at smirk at him, "Does this mean you're not mad at me anymore?"

"There weren't any other seats available", he muttered emotionless.

She looked at the five rows in front of them that were usually empty and back at him, "Yeah, totally- I mean its just so packed in here."

He let out a little breath and turned to her to reveal his pink nose and watery eyes, "Can you shut up? I'm trying to listen."

She turned Greg's face back to her- who was also coughing,"Are you sick?"

He let out a tiny sigh, not wanting to make eye contact with her and push her hands away- turning back to the front, "No."

It made her a little nervous, because she knew he was lying. It was obvious that something had changed in the four weeks she hadn't seen him. He'd lost weight, and it was strange because he'd never worn a pullover hoodie to class before and looked so disheveled as he did now.

Though Lisa had the nagging suspicion he wore it to elude from how sick he was. And as much as she was trying not to care, she couldn't help herself from turning his stunned face and feeling his burning forehead.

"Hey! what the-"

She sighed at him, and whispered, "Greg you're burning up. You shouldn't be in class."

He swatted her nurturing hands away and moved his body away from her in his seat, "We have an exam next week. So it would be kind of nice to know what its about, don't you think?"

It annoyed her, but she knew he had a point, and for the rest of their class she sat next to him unable to focus on what Davis was saying, and solely worrying about him instead. About how long he had been sick, had it been intentional? had he brought it on himself? And she truly hated that she couldn't shake the need to make him better- whatever the reason was.

"You need to be in bed- resting", she said after Davis had dismissed the class and everyone began to get up and leave.

In a surprising turn of events, he actually followed her out of the class, and for a moment she thought things might be back to normal- that was until she turned to look at him.

"You're not my mother", was all he said as he started walking away.

It wasn't good enough, and she didn't care if he was still upset- she deserved more than his cold shoulder, "You can't push me away simply because I care about my friend."

Someone called his name and he began to quicken his pace, and only looked back at her with a confused expression before completely walking away, "Who ever said we were friends?"


End file.
